The Accidental Trad Wife

The presents thing 

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying my best to make my husband’s home life as easy, warm and full of love as possible. But today is his birthday, so what can I do to make him feel special? 

I didn’t organise anything extravagant or social media worthy. I hate the ‘Presents thing’ on Facebook or Insta, where someone shares a picture with a pile of presents with ‘The hubby/wifey done good’ as the caption. I’m trying to be less judgemental, but this particular modern trend still makes me feel sick. It’s a shameless display of wealth, or just as likely, credit card debt. Maybe there’s a positive reason to do it, I just can’t see what that might be. 

So, I won’t write a list of my husband’s presents, I’ll just say that I tried to buy some things that showed I cared and listened, and I think he liked them. 

After presents, cans of Monster, and Duolingo practice, we headed out to see my in-laws for breakfast. 

A birthday day 

We left a little early to walk round the charity shops before breakfast. No great finds today. It was still a nice way to start the day though. 

It was a classic millennial couple and in-laws breakfast, with avocado on toast, eggs Benedict and almost everyone having a side of halloumi. We chatted generally for an hour or so and then the two of us headed into town. 

For the day I put together a ‘Birthday choice wheel’ on an app on my phone. I listed a bunch of things we could do and my husband got to spin the wheel, then we did whatever it said. 

• Spin 1: Shuffleboard. I won. It was close. Maybe I should have let him win, with it being his birthday? Nah. 
• Spin 2: Kisses. Self explanatory. 
• Spin 3: 2p machines and arcade games. We ended up with two lollipops, one key chain, two rubber ducks and a reasonably large Hello Kitty plush. 
• Spin 4: Mini golf. I didn’t win. It wasn’t close. I’m not good at mini golf, but we had a good time. 
• Spin 5: Kisses. Still self explanatory.
• Spin 6: A bag of sweets. We went to an overpriced American sweet shop and got pic and mix and some Milk Duds. 
• Spin 7: Kisses. I put this one in a few times.
• Spin 8: Cocktails and chat. We went to The Ivy, had a cocktail, a glass of champagne and some delicious sourdough bread and butter. 

I think my husband liked the choice wheel birthday. It meant we ended up wandering around town just doing a bit of everything and enjoying each other’s company. 

We then headed back home in a taxi, to relax for a couple of hours before going out for dinner with friends. 

I used to know that feeling

At dinner, the food was OK, but the company was great. Actually, my broccoli was great, and for my husband’s food, OK maybe a little generous. We had a lovely time though, catching up over mocktails and flavourless mac and cheese.

On the way back home I asked my husband “Do you feel relaxed and ready to go back to work tomorrow, now you’ve had a few days off?” His answer, “No.” I used to know that feeling. 

Tomorrow I’ll do my Trad Wife best to make a welcoming home for my husband to come back to.

The Trad Wife round up:

Number of the day: 36
Spins of the wheel: 8
Feeling: Content
Tomorrow’s plan? Be the best Goddamn Trad Wife I can be