Dear Cary,
Well, well, well, here I am, barely married a week. He's the most kind, calm, sweet person I've ever met. Considerate, caring -- you know, all those things for which we women cherish men.
He's also sexy and totally into me. Well, sort of.
He's got these friends. They get together occasionally (once every six weeks?) and fix computers all night and play computer games and drink themselves stupid. I usually spend these nights home (I've got two kids from a previous marriage), kind of waiting it out. Sometimes he comes home early-ish, (2 a.m.) and other times it's late-ish (5 a.m.). I can't sleep when he's gone like this. I worry about accidents and him landing in jail and also what he's doing. So I stay up and watch TV and feel kind of sick and very uncomfortable. This also impacts me the next day, because I work days. He used to work nights, but quit his job to find a day job, but he's still on this night schedule, so he can have this night lifestyle and sleep all day.
The past few months, while he was with me making wedding arrangements, I couldn't have been happier. When he saw his friends, it was usually for a game of disc golf in the evening and then home to me by 8 or 9 p.m. I hardly saw the friends (one came over to help him do yard work at my house, but that was pretty much it). Come the wedding, everyone had a great time, and we were off on our honeymoon.
Last week while on our honeymoon, he made arrangements to see one of these friends, his best friend, the day after the day we would get back in town, for a late-night computer-fixing drink fest.
So last night, he's off festing and I'm lying in bed, married one whole week. I'm thinking, what is going on here? Is this normal behavior? Do guys just go off on benders so they keep their "one of the guys" status even though they're married? Is that the right thing? I kind of feel left out too when he does this. (Why should I feel this way? I've had him all to myself for weeks!)
Today, I suggested that he "fest" during the day and gave him lots of reasons why. He agreed. Then, like 20 minutes later, he tells me that he and these friends are taking off for a weekend bachelor party camping trip in a couple of weeks.
All of a sudden, I feel like I got relegated to a somewhat derogatory role of "wife" instead of "girlfriend."
Give me some realistic expectations here, Cary. I don't want to be weird about this situation. I want him to have a happy life, have his friends, and have his fun. But I don't want to sacrifice my well-being for sleepless nights either.
And I know marriage is a compromise. I get that perfectly. So -- is this the compromise? An occasional sleepless night for me and an occasional night of craziness for him?
What do normal, sexy, happy couples in love do in this situation?
Dazed and Confused
Dear Dazed and Confused,
Congratulations on your marriage, you blushing new bride. Sounds like you've got your hands full, what with the two kids and the new husband and all his friends.
Overall, though, if he's getting together with his old buddies once every few weeks, it doesn't sound too out of line. And if he's still on a night schedule from a previous job, it's not like he's some inveterate nighthawk; sleep schedules can take some time to change.
Meanwhile, the key is to figure out what to do with yourself when all members of the family unit are not present. It might help to think back to what you used to do with your kids when you were home alone together, before you were married. Is it the waiting for him to come home that occupies your mind? Try to pretend that he's away on a trip and not coming home at all. Go to sleep and forget about him.
But he's not drinking and then driving home, is he? If he is, it's no wonder you're worried. I think you should insist that he find some other transportation. That's something you should be firm about.
But it's very difficult for a guy to maintain the healthy ties he has with other men once he gets married, and it will probably take some time to find ways that work. Eventually, his friends will get married one by one, and the old group will dissolve. Sad but true. Meantime, he has to try to preserve what is valuable, or sacred even, about his old ties with his buddies, and yet move into a new phase of an adult life of love and commitment. It's not easy and there's no set of clear instructions. You're in a period of transition, so try to set up workable patterns, because whatever patterns you set up will tend to persist.
When I got married, the one thing I wanted to do was somehow involve all my friends in my life as a settled and proper married man -- all the punks and anarchists and ne'er-do-wells who seemed to be my soul mates. Well, I didn't really know how to do that and also achieve some semblance of order and safety in my married life. I still don't. But I do the best I can. That's all you can do.
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