The evil that men do

The 11th Commandment, according to Churchianity: Thou shalt not spend thy free time with thy friends, playing games, or in any other activity displeasing to thy wife:

I know a young man who married in the last five years. He loves his new wife very much, and they’re having fun setting up their rental house, putting some money away, and desperately trying to finish their education part-time.

They did everything right: they dated for a while, they waited until they were married to make love, they got to know each others’ families. They’re not rushing into parenthood until they have a house and their education completed. But they’re on track to have that well before they’re 30.

There’s just one problem: whenever she’s at work, and he’s not, he heads over to his old house that he shared with a bunch of friends and plays video games. In fact, sometimes when she is home he still heads over there. He’s at work when he’s supposed to be at work. He’s at church when he’s supposed to be at church. He’s at school when he’s supposed to be at school. But much of his free time is spent playing these games, often at a buddy’s house. And his new wife is sick of it.

Men have to understand that women have a natural instinct to control others.  It is part of their maternal instinct.  But although it is natural, it is not appropriately applied to the head of the household; giving into that instinct may be easier, but will inevitably lead to unhappiness on the part of both parties.

The irony, of course, is that this woman likely spends more time staring at the television set than her husband does playing games. 

"Females across all age categories watched more TV than males, with the 50+ demographic leading at more than 215 hours per month."

Note that this guy would have to spend 7 hours and ten minutes playing games every single day just to reach the average amount of time being spent by the older women who make up the majority of the modern American church.  Have you ever heard a Christian leader decry the amount of time women spend watching television?

Now, obviously some men do spend too much time playing games.  If you're not taking care of your responsibilities, then you need to readjust your priorities.  It happens to everyone from time to time, so if that's the case, make the adjustment.  But never accept any attempt from anyone to dictate how you spend your free time; a woman has no more right to demand that you spend the evening in front of the television with her than you have to insist that she play four hours of coop Battlefield 3 with you.

This leads me to a thought that women might do well to keep in mind: the fact that a man is not bitching about an activity and is perhaps even enjoying it does not mean that it is something that he actually wants to do.  Just appreciate the fact that he's willing to participate in your interests, don't try to weasel out by pretending that it's his interest too if he never does it when you're not around.