Guest Author - Pam Garlick

Are you one of the many who sit down at nine on Sunday evenings to watch the popular televison show, “Desperate Housewives”? Did you laugh when Laura Bush joked about being one, making light of her life as the president’s wife?

Are you a desperate housewife? I know I am. I have lived more than one of the plots they have used for the show, though I’ll never admit which ones.

Yet, I wonder how long before someone figures turnaround is fair play, and comes up with the show “Desperate Husbands”? Come to think if it, don’t some of the men on the original Desperate seem pretty desperate themselves? Perhaps when you get down to it, the main reason the wives on that show are so desperate is because of their desperate husbands.

Think about it. Put yourself in the shoes of the average husband.

Then again, what is average?

Well, it certainly isn’t the icons of today’s entertainment industry. Those male members of society may face their own challenges, but they are paid well for it. I don’t think you’ll find the average desperate husband in the entertainment world. Nor, in the world of sports. Nor running any of the top Fortune 500 companies. Nope, some of them may be desperate, but they certainly aren’t average.

No, average are the guys out there just struggling to get by. They probably look at those previously mentioned men with a bit of envy, mixed with just a touch of resentment for setting the bar so high. I mean, average guys don’t get asked for their autographs, drive in chauffeured limousines, nor are the women on their arms the same who’s faces grace many of our most popular magazines. And they certainly aren’t pinching pennies to survive, unless their spending millions more than the millions they are making.

Still, average guys are breaking molds that have been handed down by previous generations. Generations who said men worked and brought in the money while women stayed at home and took care of the home front. These were the original desperate housewives.

I know that mold started being broken a long time ago, as women entered the work force out of necessity when their men were off to war. And still many are only in the work force out of necessity. They have been forced to bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan, etc. etc. etc.

But some, after having a taste of what it is to work outside the home, for whatever reason, thirst for more.

So, in some cases, certainly not all, the result is desperate husbands.

Men who work all day and have to adjust to coming home and having to make their own dinner, or help clean the house, or worse, try to figure out what is going on in their children’s lives. Men who are suddenly realizing that all those modern conveniences that were supposed to make house work easier, don’t really make life easier, because somewhere along the way it has gotten a lot more complicated.

Or, men who find their wives are not only finding fulfilment in the work force rather than at home, but are also being successful at it. That some of their wives working their way up the corporate ladder, or holding positions of responsibilities that at one time were held by only men, are actually doing a good job at it. Worse still, adding insult to injury, those women are sometimes also bringing home more money than their husbands.

Ouch! That can make some men very desperate. And resentful.

Husbands have a choice, they can envy that growth, resent it when it surpasses their own position in life; grow angry because it may upset the status quo. They can turn their lives into potential fodder for a spin off television drama titled “Desperate Husbands”.

Pick the first and perhaps the wives of those Desperate Husbands will be more likely to appreciate their husbands. Less likely to push them to the wayside in their own pursuit of success.

They just might take the word desperate out of the equation and simple be loving wives and husbands. Oh, they probably won’t be making any television dramas about them, but then again, it’s relationships like these that will last beyond a few seasons. More like a lifetime without being canceled.

If you happen to be one of the few who hasn’t seen the show Desperate Housewives, here’s your chance: