No more knight in shining armor

I read a blog today that is basically about the differences between men and women. It seems that men think differently than women, and need different things than women need to feel loved.

Who knew?

I chuckled at some of the comments, because I used to be that young twenty-something with the mile long list of non-negotiable items. I crossed A LOT of men (really, they were boys, as I look back and think about it) off of my list after learning some things about them. I still have some non-negotiables, but I am not as strict about a lot of things as I have matured and learned. Looking for perfection is not reasonable nor is it practical. Perfection does not exist on this planet J

The funny thing about those lists is that I was told by married women to make the lists. I would ‘FIND’ my future husband by making a list of (demands) attributes I was looking for. Well, I made my list, and then I held every guy I met up to it and deemed him unworthy of me because he did not fit every single line.

Then I met a little something called reality, and realized there was no knight in shining armor, or fake movie character that would enter my life. The flaws of the movie character are so obvious and then neatly resolved in a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.

I like to think that when I do get married, I’ll be the perfect wife who does everything right. (uh huh) Then reality smacks ME in the face with something resembling a 2x4 and I know I will do stuff that is going to make my future husband irate and wonder why in the world he thought marrying me would be a good idea (here’s hoping he gets past that quickly though!).

I do hope and pray I would be the kind of wife who would forgive my man’s ‘man’ stuff as much as he would forgive me my ‘woman’ stuff. Marriage is work, I know that and have no fantasy that it will be a walk in the park.

At my age, I figure I won’t be meeting or marrying anyone who hasn’t already been through a marriage, and most likely has kids. I’m okay with that, and know there are a lot of conversations in the future about how parenting a combined household will work.

So, all of that to say that I am firmly grounded in reality, and no longer expect perfection in my mate, because I hope he won’t expect it in me.