‘How’s the wife treatin’ ya?’
I guess you are familiar with such an annoying question once you were newly married. Marriage is a social bonding process that comes with the declaration of love for one another, child rearing and establishing oneself among the other primates with desire for greatness. However, no one is can fathom the frustration that a newly married couple faces for the next two years of ultimate torture with teasing questions and annoying remarks about sex life.
The basic questions begin right after the honeymoon. It starts when you come across your new neighbours and ends at the office. Some of the questions include
So when do we get to hear the good news?
Here the fundamental implication lies on the fact that they want to hear if you are expecting a child very soon or not. The fact that they do not understand the meaning of discreetness is painful and as a result you have to suffer the consequences. The good news about pregnancy affects entirely the mother and father and it is hard to fathom why it will be good news for you? Will it not be just news to you?
Who is more dominating? You or your wife?
Sadly, the neighbours and colleagues are most interested in who is yelling more on whom and who gets to decide which side of the bed to sleep on. The assertion of dominance has been the continued by the regime of patriarchy. However, with evolution of social behaviour of mankind, females have asserted dominance on male members equally. Hence the curiosity that who gets to be the alpha male around the house?
Why don’t you have that newlywed glow on your face?’
How about you stick bulbs in your eyes and that way you get to see everything brighter? Sincerely, there is too much pressure on women to look the prettiest on their wedding night. Then again, they expect you to wake up with your makeup on. What are you, a Christmas tree? What is the glow exactly and why is it related to a bride only? Isn’t the husband equally married like the wife is? There are so many questions that the head is about to burst. Imagine what the couples actually feel like.
Are you letting your wife continue with her job?
Honestly, such a stereotypical question should have been banned 20 years ago when women had to take permission for taking a job for living a life of honest pay. The fact that such a question is still being asked only stresses on the true nature of society still now. Women are still considered as the person only to contribute to kitchen work and child rearing. Patriarchy seems like a never ending cycle where women are expected to stay indoors for maintaining the house while the men earn their bread.
Such annoying questions either have a rhetorical answer or a nod would be sufficed. Any negative answer would only lead to hostility and cold war among you and the neighbour which is totally unnecessary.
Are your in-laws living in with you?
This is one of the most hated questions that most newly-married couples get to hear. It is almost like asking are you leaving your parents after marriage. And if the answer is yes by the slightest chance then God save you. What is more is that if your answer is a yes then you get the huge bunch of advices and instructions given to encounter the in-laws. I mean are you serious? Encounter? Are they animals to eat me up? And moreover, how can it be of someone’s interest? It should not make any difference in their lives.
Will you have time for your friends and family now?
This is honestly, the most irritating question. Is it a law that once a person gets married he or she will have to give all the 24 hours of the day to the spouses? If not then why this question does come from? It is not getting to jail or going to some forbidden island, it’s just marriage!