Dear Mizzy,
I am embarrassed to be writing to you, but I’m at my wits end.
I work hard every day at a job I don’t even like, but when I come home at night the house is a mess, our teenage boys are slouched in front of their computer games, and my wife isn’t even home half the time.
I have to put together dinner every night or order in pizza, and no one even sits down with me to enjoy it. The boys don’t stop playing their games while they eat and my wife just says she’s not hungry—that’s when she’s even home.
I’m not a complaining kind of man, Mizzy, but I can’t remember the last time my wife showed me any affection. I feel like I’m on a treadmill—getting no rest for the weary and no respect from anybody.
Do you have some advice for me?
--Sad Husband and Father
Dear Sad,
I’m afraid you’ve made your own bed, Sad, and now you’re lying in it. Ha, ha.
But seriously, sir, what you need to do is to be a better husband to your poor wife and a better father to those boys.
Start with your wife. You must be doing something terribly wrong to make her disrespect and ignore you. I suggest you shape up or ship out.
I don’t have time to give you a whole program, but unless you’re an idiot, you should be able to figure it out. What could you do to pull your weight around that house?
Get up an hour earlier and clean the house—quietly—and make a nice breakfast—quietly—for your dear wife to wake up to?
You get the idea. Make yourself indispensable, Sad. Make yourself someone your wife might actually enjoy seeing in the morning.
--Mizzy
Dear Mizzy,
I am a changed woman, thanks to the advice you gave my “David,” aka “Sad.” But sadder still, my best friend Lenora stole him away from me. He was too good to be true.
--Sad’s Ex-wife
Dear Sad’s Ex,
You’ve got to give a little to get a little.
--Mizzy
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