February 14, 2010
I am a firm believer that you teach people how to treat you. So, as I spend my 26th Valentine with my partner, if it wasn’t all I hoped it would be, I only have myself to blame.
I remember the night before a Mother’s Day when hubby got home at 9:30 and I asked, point blank, if he had bought me something. He complained that he’d been very busy, what with his two jobs so I could stay home with the cherub. I handed him his car keys and pointed to the door, “Walmart is still open!”
I remember my birthday when I made it very clear that I wanted a solatire blue sapphire ring and when I opened the velvet ring box to find a band of sapphires, I burst into tears and threatened divorce.
I remember the Christmas when I had pretty much given up on the idea that I was ever going to get exactly what I wanted from hubby, let alone above and beyond, so I bought myself a dress I’d wanted for some time, wrapped it up, opened it on Christmas and waited for hubby to be all confused. But not my hubby, he took full credit until I confessed I had bought it for myself. (This is the same husband who spends most of Christmas asking everyone, “What did we get you?”)
I even complained one time to my mother-in-law about how she hadn’t trained her son, my husband, very well. She retorted, “He was fine until I gave him to you.”
Yes, you teach people how to treat you. And this year I got roses from hubby. Not a dozen long stem roses. Not a half dozen roses from the guy at the off-ramp to our house. Not a single rose wrapped in cellophane with the mini-mart prize tag peeled off.
No, I got Tuscany Superb, Empress Josephine, Celsiana, Queen of Denmark, Old Blush China and many more roses, all bare root, all planted with MiracleGro Rose Planter Mix, all with sprinklers at their base, and all slowing leafing out. Fifteen roses bushes in all and I didn’t lift a shovel, or even pick up the roses and planter mix. Hubby did it all by himself.
Count me lucky, or hubby well taught. Either way, I have had a fabulous Valentine’s Day. I can’t wait to see what I get in another twenty-six years!
This week I will teach others how to treat me, by treating them the way I want to be treated.
