Dave Carrol’s post “Are you an owner or a renter?” got me thinking about the way men treat their brides. Do you treat her as if she will be long term? Do you treat her as if you will have to live with the consequences of any neglect or bad treatment?
A house is interesting in that neglect does not necessarily show for a good long time. Failure to do maintenance can cause unseen consequences that will only become visible problems years later. You can put things off and not pay the price for a while, maybe a long while – but when you do this the long term devastation can be great, and repairs can be very costly. A wife is much the same – neglect may not show up at first, but eventually things will go wrong. Failure to maintain your marriage causes hidden problems, with the long-term damage to your relationship being great, and the “cost” of repairing the relationship being very high.
If you are not renting her, don’t treat her like a rental!
