The Accidental Trad Wife

I was out of sorts most of the day

I woke up at 1am, and couldn’t get back to sleep until 4. My husband stirred at about 2 when I put the TV on. Luckily he’s a heavy sleeper, he grunted “I love you” and fell immediately back to sleep. I watched a couple of hours of BoJack Horseman. 

In the last few months at work I was sleeping really, really badly. I needed to stay up until the early hours just to decompress. How did I used to work a 12 hour day on 5 hours sleep? 

I woke up properly at about 7:45, and my husband had already left for work. Everything felt off. I sat in bed with my can of Monster and did an hour of Duolingo. I’m now able to say “Does your brother work with my husband in London”, another useful phrase. 

I pottered a little, but not really. 

I still love cartoons 

I had a total lack of energy, so spent several hours in bed watching BoJack. It’s worth the watch. There’s episodes on dementia, addiction and death that go deeper than shows that don’t have anthropomorphic animals as the main cast.

BoJack does better than most in having well developed, strong female characters, with emotional depth. A cat called ‘Princess Caroline’ wants a family, and is career driven. She wants to have it all. She falls over the edge a couple of times. But she ends up making decisions that are right for her. 

A human woman, ‘Diane’, feels like she’s never enough. She’s smart, creative and wants to make the world better. But she lives with her movie star husband, who’s a yellow Labrador called Mr Peanutbutter, and is provided for. Her character resonates with me, although my husband isn’t a Labrador, as much as that might be nice. He’d then have some words of wisdom like these:

The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn’t the search for meaning, its just to keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense and eventually, you’ll be dead.

It’s pretty bleak for a cartoon.

I still love video games 

I had a jacket potato and baked beans for lunch. Very British, and a much needed change from eating lunch out and having a couple of glasses of Sauvignon.

I played ‘The Sims’ for a couple of hours. I’m really not doing anything for the home today, am I? My Sim doesn’t have a job and I’ve styled her as a 1950s housewife. She’s not as complex as the characters in BoJack. She is, however, a vampire and a movie star. I don’t think The Sims is realistic enough to do an experiment of seeing if not working and looking after the home will be fulfilling enough. Still a fun way to spend some time though. 

I pottered around a bit again, with slightly more energy than this morning, At least I’ve cleaned the work surfaces, blitzed the bathroom, and done the hoovering.

A solo night 

My husband came home to get ready before going out for a curry with some friends. He was complaining about some dry skin when he got out of the shower. I went into Trad Wife mode for half an hour, and gave him a facial. He’s been dual clensed, toned, serumed and moisturised. I do like looking after him, and I think he likes it too.

After he left, I roasted some potatoes, red peppers, halloumi and chorizo, and ate it from my favourite bowl in front of more BoJack. Is there any data that shows what age you suddenly realise you have a favourite bowl? I’m interested to know.

It’s been a completely average and uneventful day. I liked it. 

The Trad Wife round up:

Hours sleep last night: 5
Favourite episode of BoJack: Free Churro
Hours played The Sims: 4
Personal usefulness rating: 2/5