Happy

(Baonghean) - Recently, I shared on my personal page a funny story titled "Taking my wife to give birth" (I just collected it, because I don't have a wife yet, so who can I take to give birth?). Surprisingly, this humorous story received quite an enthusiastic response from my Facebook friends.

Illustration photo - Source Internet

The content and plot are not special. A guy records the process of taking his wife to the hospital to give birth and the things he observed during the days of taking care of her. A young concubine, while waiting to give birth, playfully texts and takes pictures to send to her rich old lover. A woman is exhausted from giving birth but only sees "wild ducks", there is absolutely no sign of her husband or anyone from her husband's family coming to visit. A couple gives birth to a child with dark skin and curly hair, and according to the husband, "my wife just came back from working abroad in Africa, she must have eaten a lot of rice there that's why the child is so dark"... All are tragicomic stories that are both funny and sad.

I also observed something like this: Adults - preparing to get married or already married - tend to like reading stories related to married life and family. Positive stories talk about the art of behavior, how to raise children, household tips, secrets to balancing spending, etc. Negative stories talk about adultery, jealousy, mother-in-law - daughter-in-law conflicts, etc. Or comparing the difference between single life and married life, the changes of men/women before and after marriage are also topics that receive the attention of many people.

Continuing my little “probe” and “survey”, I came to another conclusion: Everyone has complained about their married life at least once, regardless of whether they are men or women, rich or poor, happy or unhappy. Let’s say, right after I posted the story “Taking my wife to give birth” above, several married friends jumped in to comment. One told a story about being called out by his wife during labor, another told a story about his wife suffering from postpartum depression, pulling her husband’s head out at night to pull his hair. One friend even threatened: You’re just not married yet, if you hear all the stories about married life, you’ll probably be scared and won’t dare to get married again!

Do I dare to get married? I affirm that I do. The reason is because I am not the only man. Men have always gotten married, just like women all want to get married. Everyone tells and knows the tragic and funny stories about marriage and family. But I do not get married because I am afraid of the stories I have never seen before.

On the contrary, in my experience, the people who often complain about the tragicomic problems in married life are often the ones who are very attached to and love their small family. Listening to their stories, I do not feel resentment, frustration or hatred in them, but rather something like loving, playful blame in a loving way. Also, the husbands who commented and "complained" under the story I shared are the ones who love and are responsible for their wives and children - I believe so. Because if they did not love each other, how could a husband "put up with" his wife grabbing his head and pulling his hair like that...

There is a saying that “Women marry like gambling”, meaning that happiness after marriage is a game of chance. I think that marriage is like an exchange, or more broadly, a trade-off. As a famous novelist said, “All the best things can only be obtained when we agree to exchange them for great suffering”. The happiness of giving birth or holding hands in old age, aren’t they all exchanged for a lot of tears?

Hai Trieu