One Spouse Is Enough

I was watching my new favorite daytime television program, Anderson Cooper,  the other morning when he had the man and wives of  Sister Wives   on.    A few days before that he had some of the adult children of the Warren Jeff's FLDS Church group that had either left or been kicked out.

We know there were atrocities going on in that group.  The man has been tried and convicted of rape of a minor.  From what the adult children said, a lot of these men have many wives, believing they need at least 7 wives to get to the highest form of heaven.  They then go on to have dozens of children, in some cases 40 or more.   These men, from what I heard, do not have much interaction with these children and it is an old world ( to me) style relationship where the man makes all decisions and the women follow.  Okay, this is the extreme case.

Then we come to Sister Wives with  Kody Brown, his 4 wives, 16 children and another on the way.     I think when it first came on I watched part of one show so I am no expert here.  I also watched about that much of the television program, Big Love,  where the husband has 3 wives.  Anderson Cooper even said he can't see what's in it for the women.  He said " I get it for the guy."  The audience snickered and chuckled.      The Sister Wives women said they were welcoming and supporting of each other.  I have to say, having been a working mother, that every working mom would like to have a wife at home taking care of the daily house business.

This whole set up leads me to this.  Both of those programs, one real, one not, show these women living in their own houses. First of all, who can afford 4 houses?   On a practical basis only, there's a lot of stuff that can go wrong in a family with 4 houses.   I look at day to day issues in my own house. My garbage disposal stopped working. (Terry plunged it)  My  ice maker is not working right.  There are yards to mow. Gutters to clear.  Ok, these guys live in Las Vegas (because Utah was going to prosecute them.) so maybe they have pebbles.  There are usually leaks and dips or snow to be blown away or shoveled, depending on where you live.   I'm not saying women can't do all of these things.  I've been a single Mom.  I know what I can and can't do.  Basically I know what I don't want to do too. :)

16 children.  That means 16 different directions to go for school activities.  Then there are sports.  I know how many bleachers I've sat on with just 3 children.   16 children and one on the way.  Snicker snicker...  really?   That means this guy can never stops working.  (Terry swears he can't either, in this economy with the market going up and down).   But these families need a large income to support them.  I know some of the wives work so it is a family effort, just like most of ours own lives.

 I just know, at my age, when I was still working,  (about 2 1/2 years ago)  I was tired at the end of the day.  I'm glad I didn't have the ballgames, play practices, the teacher meetings, the homework, baths, hair washing, laundry,  etc,.etc that I used to do after I got home.  

Then we have the wives.  I'm probably going out on a limb here, but have you ever worked around  a bunch of women?  I don't want to fall into the stereotype but, we can be hormonal.  I have 3 daughters.  For 1 1/2 years, we had daughter #1's best friend living with us when they were teenagers.  Those girls could argue over anything.  I have 4 women friends that I have known for nearly 30 years.  We used to work together and we still get together.  I don't want to live with them and God knows Terry wouldn't either.  He's one of the good guys but he doesn't "get it" when comes to how I think.  I don't understand why he does or says some of things he does either.  It's the Mars and Venus thing.

The possibility of the reverse has been thrown out there.  I saw a clip of Sister Wives when one of the wives asked Kody how he would feel about sharing her with 3 husbands.  He said "That's disgusting."  I wanted to strangle him about then.   Personally, that is just way too much work for me.  Like I said, I can't figure out the one I've got and I've had him nearly 30 years.