Making marriage work

As promised, here is my treatise on what it takes to make a marriage last. I've asked the Wife to contribute her side. Hopefully she'll have some time to whip something up. I suspect that she sticks with me for the same reason you keep a pet that's kind of annoying, but maybe she really likes me after all. She hasn't kicked me to the curb yet, so I must be doing something right. So here goes:

I’ve been thinking lately on what makes a good marriage. The Wife and I have been married for 16 years now and have been together for almost 23 years. We started dating in our junior year of high school. Now before you say, “Awwww, high school sweethearts,” I want to say it wasn’t like that per se. We dated for a while, broke up, got together again, broke up at the end of high school, and got together again in college before getting serious and deciding to get married. I guess, for me, I just couldn’t stay away from her.

I fell hard for her sometime during college. I new it was time to get married when other women no longer attracted my sexually. I only wanted her and could do without every other woman on the planet.

So what has kept us together all these years? I won’t speak for the Wife, but from my end, I can sum it up simply. Once I truly fell madly in love with her, since that day it hasn’t stopped. She’s still as beautiful as the day I married her. I can’t imagine life without her. Right now she’s sleeping in her chair and she’s just too darn cute. I want to just kiss her on the head and hug her. I like nothing more than to snuggle up with her in bed first thing in the morning, or just to put a hand on her leg as I fall asleep at night.

Sure, there have been rough patches. We went through quite the stressful time when the kids were a little younger and our finances were strained. There were many times I was ready to tell her to get out of the house, but I never did. And I can’t stay mad at her. It’s easy to be angry when she’s not around. But a hug and kiss from her will melt me in a second. Or just looking at her. I’m so hooked it isn’t funny.

So I guess I don’t know what it is that makes a good marriage. I try to take care of the Wife, I love her to death, and I try to keep her from wearing herself out (with limited success). When she’s right about stuff that I do, I try and fix it (see older post about too much internet time). I do what I have to do to make our relationship work.

Besides, I realized a few years ago when the kids were small that it would be WAY too much work to go out and find a new woman. All that bar hopping and getting to know someone and that whole dating scene. It’s so much easier (and cheaper) to hang on to the woman you have. Especially when she’s as hot and sexy as the little lady I got. So fuck you to all those guys out there. I’m keeping this one. You can’t have her. So there.