Introduction
After I said, 'I do,' I said, 'What do I do?' Marriage licenses don't come with instructions. It wouldn't matter anyway. Most men I know don't read directions. That's why we can't program the VCR. After all, we secretly know that 'Real men don't need directions.' We would rather drive around for hours looking for our destination than ask for directions.
This book represents the collective wisdom I have heard over the years from both husbands and wives about what makes a good husband. It is not intended to teach you how to redo your life. It is about the everyday things that make living with her better. I hope you enjoy reading it and that it makes you think about her. It is the little things we do that make the biggest difference. Enjoy each other!
Share the TV remote control.
Shampoo her hair for her birthday.
Don't eat potato chips in bed.
Put the toilet seat down.
Don't ask her how long she's been on the phone.
Men always want to be a woman's first love; women have a more subtle instinct: what they like is to be a man's last romance. —Unknown
Don't take more out of your relationship than you put in.
Go for a walk and hold her hand.
Send her flowers on an ordinary day.
Take turns driving the new car.
Pains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. That's what makes a marriage last—more than passion or even sex. —Simone Signoret
Fix household appliances without muttering about how they broke.
If she wrecks the car, ask her if she is all right before you ask about the car.
You don't need to understand her completely to love her completely.
Delete 'I told you so' from your vocabulary.
Write down her telephone messages correctly.
Go grocery shopping with her.
Do the grocery shopping yourself.
Help her wrap the Christmas presents.
Buy the holiday and birthday cards you send to your parents.
Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up. —Joseph Barth
Ask her about her day.
Don't give her advice unless she asks for it.
Listen when she talks about her friends.
Visit her relatives, too.
Look through her high school yearbook.
See a movie of her choosing, even if you don't want to see it.
Then in the marriage union, the independence of the husband and the wife will be equal, their dependence mutal, and their obligations reciprocal. —Lucretia Mott
Take her to bed and just hold her.
When you're wrong admit it. ©2008. All rights reserved. Reprinted from A Husband's Little Black Book by Robert J. Ackerman. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street , Deerfield Beach , FL 33442. |