Random Esquire

Besos grew up in Mexico.  She was telling me that I was rubbing off on her and that she was going to learn how to cook more things outside her standard repertoire of Mexican dishes.  I enjoy cooking and since we are usually at my place, I tend to cook more often than Besos.

Anyway, in the midst of this conversation, she told me that when she was 18, her father said to her, “A woman should know how to cook, clean, and do laundry before getting married.”  I said, “What?!”  She repeated it.  Having grown up in a family with a very independent mother and sister, I am not so much a fan of these archaic views.  I said, “You should have told him that a man should learn how to keep his goddamn mouth shut before getting married.”  She then told me about their old neighbor’s sister.

“Our neighbor’s sister got married and she didn’t know how to cook, clean and do laundry and he returned her.”

I said, “Wait, wait…what do you mean ‘returned her‘?  Like they got a divorce?”

She said, “No, he just returned her home so she could learn to do those things.”

He returned her!  Like …a broken product that needed to get fixed.

Wild.

Then I wondered if some men really do feel like this is a perk to getting married.  My father doesn’t cook or do laundry.  He does clean – but stuff like vacuuming.  My sister knows how to do those things…but she hired someone to cook, clean and do laundry.  Me?   I’m 36, for God’s sake.  I can do all three.

Maybe I should open a school for young Mexican women.

You know,… maybe I’ll run that idea past Besos first.