YOU HAD ONE JOB!

Marriage changes people. Parenthood changes Wi-Fi passwords. And somewhere in between diaper duty, deadlines, and dinner debates, YOU realize you’re no longer the man in a love story, you’re a character in a sitcom.

Take this morning, for example. YOU woke up to find your wife glaring at you like you just leaked national secrets. Turns out, you left the milk out overnight. Again. In your defence, you thought you kept it back. She insists you thought wrong. That’s marriage in one sentence right there, you think, she knows.

Your wife, by the way, is a full-time homemaker, part-time detective, and full-blown multitasking ninja. She manages a house, a child, and YOU, the third and most unpredictable entity. She can cook, clean, and attend a parent-teacher meeting, all while giving you a silent treatment so powerful it echoes louder than any scream.

Meanwhile, YOU are at work, proudly telling colleagues how “lucky” you are to have such a supportive wife. They nod, assuming you’re the one holding the family together. In reality, you can’t even find your socks without calling her.

The love between you two still exists, it just takes different forms now. Earlier, it was “I miss you” texts. Now, it’s “Pick up the kid!” calls. Earlier, it was romantic dinners. Now, it’s you eating cold rotis because she’s putting your child to sleep. Earlier, it was candlelight. Now, it’s LED bulbs with unpaid bills.

On weekends, YOU try to make up for lost time. You offer to “help” with the chores, which really means standing near the kitchen asking, “Do you need anything?” while she rolls her eyes and hands you the trash. You call it teamwork, she calls it damage control.

Still, there are moments, tiny, fragile ones, when everything feels right. Like when your child sleeps peacefully between you two, and she looks at you with that same exhausted affection that says, “We’re in this chaos together.” And even if she doesn’t say it out loud, you know she wouldn’t trade this messy, noisy, sleep-deprived life for anything else.

Sure, your relationship might feel like an on-and-off switch sometimes, mostly off when you forget anniversaries, but beneath the sarcasm, sighs, and burnt toasts, there’s a quiet understanding. You both know love doesn’t always look like it did in the movies. Sometimes, it just looks like her packing your tiffin without saying a word and you remembering to bring the lunchbox back home.

Because in the end, being married isn’t about winning arguments or remembering where the milk goes. It’s about showing up, even late, even clumsy, even clueless, and hearing her say, “Fine, I forgive you,” at least until tomorrow morning.

This post was created for the Blogaberry Creative (Monthly) Challenge 2025, using the prompt - 'YOU'