Trophy Wife

Sitting in the Wards in Picayune, Mississippi last week, I happened to glance over at the next table. An attractive young woman, probably in her early to mid twenties and her 4 or 5 year old son were sitting there enjoying their lunch. It must be some instinctive thing that mother’s have, but since becoming a mother at age twenty, anytime a child is in the vicinity, my eyes somehow seem to zero in on that child.

I love watching people, but my favorite subject(s) to observe would have to be children; savoring their joy, love for life and most importantly their innocence. On this occasion, the young mother was trying to coax her son to eat his French fries so they could get ice cream and then go home so he could watch the cartoon network.

I looked over at his mother and happened to notice she was wearing a t-shirt that proudly proclaimed “Trophy Wife.” I can honestly say, I’ve NEVER seen that phrase written on a t-shirt, let alone someone wearing a t-shirt with that phrase. Trophy Wife? I looked closely at the young woman; yes she was fairly attractive. Now maybe I’m confused about the definition of a trophy wife, but I always picture a drop-dead gorgeous woman, who lacks intellect and has only one function in her husband’s life, being an adornment.

I think at that age, I was as attractive as this young woman, but I dare say, none of my ex-husbands would have had the courage to refer to me as a “trophy wife” unless perhaps they were suicidal. Don’t get me wrong; I didn’t mind being told I was attractive (though I never believed it) but for someone to insinuate that I was no more than an ornament – BIG MISTAKE! I could have seen Joey giving me something like that as a “gag” gift, but he would have stood on the other side of the room when I opened it.

Now I don’t know if this young woman’s husband had bought her the t-shirt or whether she had bought it herself. Obviously, this young woman was a “stay-at-home” mother. So she has a function other than an ornament, though from the interaction I observed, like most young women her age nowadays, she needed a course in parenting.

As I sat there eating my lunch listening to her tell her son to hurry so she could go home and play on the computer while he watched cartoons, I came to the conclusion that yes, she must be a trophy wife. Although I didn’t know the young woman, she apparently didn’t have the wisdom or astuteness to realize exactly what her t-shirt was proclaiming to the world. By the way, if anyone sees me wearing something that declares a similar sentiment, please notify the authorities, because I have completely lost my mind and need to be committed!
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SLG
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