Adjusting to a New Normal
- gprentice8
- Aug 21, 2017
- 2 min read
Before I get started I just wanted to address something as I fear that there might be a reoccurring theme that I don’t want my husband home. Whilst this might be true 0.5% of the time, the other 99.5% I love it. There is nothing more I want than having him back.
Nevertheless anybody who’s partner is away more than they are home knows there are 2 adjustment periods during these long spells and neither are particularly pleasant to live through.
This is the thing about military life, they’re barely there and then BAMM their home for weeks on end through R&R (rest & recuperation), holidays (I swear they have more than any teacher or school child I know) or in my current situation injury.
ADJUSTMENT PERIOD 1
The first day is amazing. Your 15 again. Unable to keep your hands off each other and so intertwined on the sofa you may as well be Siamese. Then reality starts to hit…
You fight over the TV. Your toilet has more skid marks the runway 1 at Heathrow. You might as well be sleeping next to a radiator he is emitting so much heat and don’t even get me started on the snoring.
ADJUSTMENT PERIOD 2
So you have made it through phase 1 and come through the other side relatively unscathed. He starts to become a part of the routine, he familiarises himself with the cleaning cupboard whilst you pile on the pounds from the man sized portions he gives you for dinner every night. A new normal emerges. However, no sooner have you become comfortable and negotiated custody of the remote, does everything change again. He fucks off back to work and you have to remember when the bins go out, that lunch doesn’t magically appear in the fridge overnight and the only joy that Meerkat Movies brings you is the annual cuddly toy on the conveyor belt of life.
(PS if you don't get the above reference, we can't be friends)
The constant revolving door is tricky to negotiate, but it does get easier. I promise. You learn to bite your tongue and he learns to pick up after himself if he is home for longer than 2 days. Who said romance was dead!
GL
- x -