With Randy's latest podcast, there has been a few threads dedicated to marriage advice, jokes, ect. and I would like to share a story with you all. Now, before I do, please keep in mind that I am a good guy and that my intentions were pure.
A couple years back, on my wife's birthday, she called me after I had returned home from work to notify me that she was on her way home from work. Being the good husband that I am, I asked how her day was and even inquired as to why she sounded disappointed, if not mildly upset. She told me that she hadn't gotten to unwrap a single birthday present and this was the cause of her "less than chipper" phone conversation. I had given her a gift earlier in the week and the other presents she received were things that just didn't lend themselves to being wrapped. Well, I knew what I had to do: find something to wrap. I knew she would be home in about 10 minutes so I set off traversing through the house hoping to glimpse something worthy of being wrapped up in brightly colored paper, if only for a few minutes. I needed something readily available, easy to wrap, and of course, bigger is better. Bedroom: nothing, living room: nothing, kitchen: maybe a big stock pot but its round, keep looking, office: nothing, and then as I swung open the door to the laundry room, I spotted the perfect faux gift: a laundry basket! At this point I feel it necessary to again remind you that my actions were done with pure intentions. A laundry basket was perfect...well almost. It was big, it was easy to wrap, it was readily available, in fact the only downside was that it was a bit heavy since it was completely full of my recently cleaned but not yet folded clothes. No time to fold clothes and empty the basket, after all this was a fake gift just so my wife could open something on her birthday so just wrap it up.
Looking back on this fiasco from her point of view, I understand why it would be upsetting to get a laundry basket full of unfolded clothes as a birthday present; although the resulting name calling was a bit over the top and I'm not convinced those weren't fake tears. Perhaps, before she opened it, I could have told her it was a fake gift and not pretended that she had one more big, heavy gift awaiting her. Anyway, the moral of the story is that yes, the thought counts, but sometimes the gift counts too.
A couple years back, on my wife's birthday, she called me after I had returned home from work to notify me that she was on her way home from work. Being the good husband that I am, I asked how her day was and even inquired as to why she sounded disappointed, if not mildly upset. She told me that she hadn't gotten to unwrap a single birthday present and this was the cause of her "less than chipper" phone conversation. I had given her a gift earlier in the week and the other presents she received were things that just didn't lend themselves to being wrapped. Well, I knew what I had to do: find something to wrap. I knew she would be home in about 10 minutes so I set off traversing through the house hoping to glimpse something worthy of being wrapped up in brightly colored paper, if only for a few minutes. I needed something readily available, easy to wrap, and of course, bigger is better. Bedroom: nothing, living room: nothing, kitchen: maybe a big stock pot but its round, keep looking, office: nothing, and then as I swung open the door to the laundry room, I spotted the perfect faux gift: a laundry basket! At this point I feel it necessary to again remind you that my actions were done with pure intentions. A laundry basket was perfect...well almost. It was big, it was easy to wrap, it was readily available, in fact the only downside was that it was a bit heavy since it was completely full of my recently cleaned but not yet folded clothes. No time to fold clothes and empty the basket, after all this was a fake gift just so my wife could open something on her birthday so just wrap it up.
Looking back on this fiasco from her point of view, I understand why it would be upsetting to get a laundry basket full of unfolded clothes as a birthday present; although the resulting name calling was a bit over the top and I'm not convinced those weren't fake tears. Perhaps, before she opened it, I could have told her it was a fake gift and not pretended that she had one more big, heavy gift awaiting her. Anyway, the moral of the story is that yes, the thought counts, but sometimes the gift counts too.
