Who We Are

Jim was talking with his ex-fiancé the other day and the subject turned to her 4 kids. She commented that she’s a mom and that’s basically it (followed by her wishing she was "more"). This comment brought Jim and I to talk about what title we most identify with. We both agreed that husband/wife was the first one that came to mind and that we felt strongest about... but we had different reasons.

Jim: Husband is a title that started 4 years ago and will most likely (other than son) be the one that he keeps the longest, fingers crossed.

Karen: I love Jim. That’s why I married him. I love him more than any of my friends or any of my family. There is no one else I’d rather be with than him so I relate most to being his wife than anything else.

Father/Mother came in second, as you can imagine, and we agreed “friend” came in third. Though I'm extremely close with my parents I tend to think of them as friends versus a parent (authority figure) now that I'm an adult.

It was no surprise that our job titles weren’t on the top of the list. They’d actually come behind “athlete”, “reader”, & “teacher” for us.

I was really pleased that unprompted our lists matched – shows that our priorities in life are lined up. I believe, and frequently hear from “experts”, that the key to happy parenting is to maintain a happy marriage. Since that’s clearly our main concern I think we’ll do all right in life.