“You’ll make a great husband some day!”: Thanks Mom…..

I was always a good boy at home. I frequently helped around the house with chores, never complained or caused trouble, and never got into arguments with anyone. I always put others’ needs before my own, and was completely subservient to everyone in my family (how times have changed…). During my childhood years my older brother usually did his own thing and never helped around the house. My mother would always complain about him, yet shower me with accolades for my subservient, self-sacrificing nature. One day when I was washing a pile of filthy dishes, she said to me “You’ll make someone a great husband one day. There is a girl out there somewhere who is going to be very lucky some day!” I was happy with those seemingly kind words back then, and genuinely believed that getting married and having kids was what made people happy in life. Further, this is what they had been telling us all throughout our primary schools, so it must have been right...

Years later, I don’t view those words as a compliment.