Best wife of the year competition
I am a failure on many domestic fronts but still think that I do rather well with my strong points. I mother my five children full time, feed and water the crew, keep Hisself happy and his office up to date. Not bad????
Then naturally I have a friend who also married a Scottish person. They have five children too [although hers are all under ten] and she keeps his accounts. I try not to feel bad with the fact that she is a brilliant cook, excellent housekeeper, rather nice person and does voluntary work every week. Not to mention that her eight-year-old can sew her own buttons back when they fall out. But now she has outperformed me totally.
One of their friends needed hospital treatment in the city and she opened her home for the family for the required two months. The friends came complete with four children. So now this friend is in hospital, his wife spends her days with him and my friend looks after all nine children, three of them are under three years old, every day. And she does not even sweat!!!!
Do I feel inadequate????? Yes I do.
Hisself popping in and sitting down in his boiler suit in the kitchen has not helped. I generally disapprove of him coming in wearing work clothes, but this time he went out with an extremely filthy bib velcroed into his sticky rear. A good wife would have noticed and saved him the embarrassment and a better one would not have dirty bibs discarded on kitchen chairs in the first place.
[Mind you not as bad as the time when he grabbed his new quilted shirt straight from the wash basket. This particular type has a velcro replacing the bottom button. He went round half a day with ladies underwear sticking to his shirt before any of us noticed.]
Lifting of my spirits has come from the most unusual direction. Mother in law. Hisself's parents are now in their eighties and MIL is a formidable lady to say the least. They had visited a young cousin who recently had his first baby. They are a lovely young couple and I can see her polishing everything trying to impress the grand old lady of the family. - Poor girl, MIL compared her efforts to mine and she failed at every hurdle; the house was too clean as was the baby; she showed far too much attention to her guests, not enough to the baby and tea was not up to standard.
It took nearly twenty years but I am delighted to announce that my mother-in-law finally approves of me. Beat that ladies!!