This particular post isn’t about being cheap or simple, but it is about something infinitely more important: The Code of Sisterhood.
Rule number 1 in the Code = NEVER ADMIT ANYTHING IS WORSE THAN CHILDBIRTH.
On Facebook this morning, I saw that a friend’s husband was having a kidney stone busted up today. Someone else chimed in with “Oh that is so much worse than childbirth!” Such an egregious error warrants a reminder on this blog about keeping the Code of Sisterhood, not just for your own benefit but for countless other women in the world.
There is one time in a woman’s life when men actually pamper us and feel sorry for us because they are completely clueless, and that is the birth of one’s first child. (Subsequent births apparently don’t count for much with getting sympathy and help from our husbands.) First time mothers should milk it for everything they possibly can during the first 6 months or so after the baby’s birth, because they will never again get so much help or sympathy by their husbands. If we start talking about things being worse than childbirth, this one perk of postpartum life will vanish. We must keep the code so that other first-time moms can take advantage of it.
Secondly, when we admit that something is worse than childbirth to a man, we lose the ability to hold our sacrifices against him for the rest of his life. My husband whines for hours about a paper cut. Now that I have delivered two babies, I can give him the “I birthed two babies, so shut your mouth” look whenever he whines about his injury. This particular advantage of keeping the Code means we can use it countless times for many years. What woman doesn’t want the ability to say “I pushed a 7-pound baby out of my body, so you can handle having your gall bladder removed!” and go back to reading her romance novel while her husband recovers from surgery?
Come on ladies, you must honor the sisterhood of women all over the world by keeping some things a mystery. If you don’t keep the code for yourself, at least keep it for the millions of women who truly appreciate all the help they can get.
