The Man-Room compromise
When we lived in Seattle, before we had Isaac, we were tight buds with another couple, Jake and Niki. We hung out all the time. It was great; they were our age, had been married almost exactly as long as we had been, were into cheap beer in large quantities, served with a serious side of snark. Jake and Dada used to joke with each other that, in exchange for their good-husband behavior through the coming years like cooking and cleaning and putting the toilet seat down, they would eventually be entitled to a room of their own which women-folk would be forbidden to enter. This room, also known as the Man Room, would contain at least one piece of leather furniture (preferably a recliner) and a gigantic TV for starters, with the optional add-on Man-Room Expansion Kit of a pool table, a dart board, a well-equipped library, a small walk-in humidor, and a martini bar and/or kegerator as finances and raised wifey eyebrows would allow.
Since then, Dada has become a father to one and soon two, as well as a modestly-paid academic supporting a stay-at-home wife. Jake and Niki moved to California to be schoolteachers in the L.A. area, bought a small house, and recently found out they are expecting their first in May. The moral to the story? Both unfortunate men have chosen, for the foreseeable future, fatherhood and affordable housing over the Man Room. Poor dudes.
Recently this has plagued Dada so, being stuck in our little-bitty house in the evenings with nowhere to escape his wife and baby and no manly pursuits in sight, that he has created a compromise to the Man Room. He has designed the Man Bench, using a 10%-off Lowe's coupon we got in the mail yesterday:
He set this up in our basement and has already put it to use sawing plastic pieces for his field equipment and fixing picture frames. It would appear that his manly-man-ness is rescued by having a tiny place to put his man objects AND where he can do useful things for our household. A fitting placeholder, he says, for the dream of his eventual and glorious Man Room.
Since then, Dada has become a father to one and soon two, as well as a modestly-paid academic supporting a stay-at-home wife. Jake and Niki moved to California to be schoolteachers in the L.A. area, bought a small house, and recently found out they are expecting their first in May. The moral to the story? Both unfortunate men have chosen, for the foreseeable future, fatherhood and affordable housing over the Man Room. Poor dudes.
Recently this has plagued Dada so, being stuck in our little-bitty house in the evenings with nowhere to escape his wife and baby and no manly pursuits in sight, that he has created a compromise to the Man Room. He has designed the Man Bench, using a 10%-off Lowe's coupon we got in the mail yesterday:
He set this up in our basement and has already put it to use sawing plastic pieces for his field equipment and fixing picture frames. It would appear that his manly-man-ness is rescued by having a tiny place to put his man objects AND where he can do useful things for our household. A fitting placeholder, he says, for the dream of his eventual and glorious Man Room.
posted by Claire at 1:03 PM
1 Comments:
Girl do NOT get me started. We have ManTown in our basement. When Liam was 3 months old Dan took a week off work and he and his dad built out half our basement. He also carpeted it. It has a huge computer set up (for Mr. IT himself) and he mounted a projector to the ceiling and hooked it up to the cable bos. All in time for the Superbowl. I've been begging him to get some cheap furniture down their but noooooo. His friends all sit in LAWN CHAIRS and watch football once a month. *sigh* Boys.
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