husbands

Life Without My Husband (Day One)

I have just kissed him good-bye, so I don’t miss him yet. He’s still sitting in the airport, or going through security. I’m grateful that the big storm that’s coming tonight held off until he left. Driving back from the airport, I could feel my context shifting. I was starving and now I could eatContinue reading “Life Without My Husband (Day One)”

Babies without daddies

My doctor is pregnant. She’s a thin, elegant dermatologist who went through a bitter divorce and custody battle that lasted long after her separation from her husband. She had seemed strung out over the whole thing, and I was surprised to find her pregnant again. It turns out that she is the third of myContinue reading “Babies without daddies”

Nothing is lonelier than a bad marriage

From inside a warm, supportive marriage (preceded by two divorces), I am being reminded these days that nothing is as lonely as a bad marriage. The person who once embodied your dreams has become an empty husk, turning to them becomes a masochistic punishment, yet there is nowhere else to go. In a crumbling marriage,Continue reading “Nothing is lonelier than a bad marriage”

Who does the dusting?

I love Joli’s comment to my earlier post that “if behind every great man is a woman, then behind every great woman is not a man who steps up to dust, but a housekeeper.” “Equality” in housekeeping has been, in my experience, an empty word. Just looking around me, if the woman doesn’t like toContinue reading “Who does the dusting?”

Domesticated men

I have been watching two men take over the domestic life of their families — my son and my husband. My son has to take care of two children by himself for extended periods of time. He irons their school clothes and makes their lunches at night, figures out methods of discipline, gets them toContinue reading “Domesticated men”