6/3/15
Why a Wife Bonus Isn’t As Bad As You Think

MVP commenter Johnny wrote the following in response to our post “The Best of #WifeBonus on Twitter”:

Is there not just a touch of sour grapes about all this? Because I’ll tell you my main feeling on the matter: envy. Green, ugly envy.

I wish I had as much money as those people. I wish I had multiple million-dollar homes and a hundred thousand bucks to toss my wife at the end of they year. If I could express my appreciation for everything she does with more than words or heartfelt gestures, I would. I’ve got a fantastic woman and if I had riches I’d shower her with them.

I wish I had so much money that my wife never had a care in the world and could devote herself totally to raising our kid and pleasing me. Which I believe would make her happy, actually.

And I don’t believe that most women would really rather bust their asses to make a mediocre living than be kept by a millionare. Sorry. Not buying it.

I mean, we assume there’s something insidious at play, but what if there’s not? What if it’s not just about the money, and those women just happen to really love a guy who’s filthy rich enough to keep them up in style?

I’m inclined to think those relationships are real, beyond the financial, because any one of those women could at any time ditch her husband and lay claim to the greatest wife bonus of all: alimony. Man. Instead of a bonus, she could HALF of all that shit, and pre-nups be damned. Those aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

I just don’t have the problem with this that everyone else has. Or, anyway, I have a different problem with it.

And here’s what happened when I ran this by my gal:

I said, “babe, if I gave you a cash bonus at the end of the year for doing all sorts of wife stuff, like cooking and cleaning and staying hot for me, would…”

She popped up with a big grin and went, “bonus!?”

I said, “wait, hang on, this is just hypothe-”

She cut me off. “How much?”

“I don’t know, like fifty grand or…”

At this point I couldn’t stand to keep it up because she was getting too giddy at the thought of a bonus I can’t afford to give her. When she settled down and told me her real thoughts, these were her conditions:

1. She’d be cool with a bonus as long as there was no flip-side of financial punishment for falling short.

2. Quote: “if you gave me fifty grand I know exactly what I’d do with it. By next year I’d turn it into a hundred grand.”

3. She’d want her obligations clearly spelled out. It couldn’t be based on my whimsy. There would need to be a list of clearly defined and achievable criteria.

4. Being a bit of a perfectionist, she pretty much does everything right anyway, so why not?

As I type this she sulks because there is no actual bonus. Damn it, I should never have brought it up.