remember the list? friends, ross and rachel, the list…isabella rossellini? of course you do. for ages afterwards, every couple laughingly made the list.
and now, even i, have made the list.
except mine is the SIMO (single income many offspring) version.
instead of listing five attractive celebrities i would like to get involved with, i have created the much more pragmatic version: a list of women magnificent charles should/can marry if i die.
hear me out.
if charles knew he had my approval to marry any of these women, then he would be spared the angst many widowed men face when they are considering remarriage. the women i have so thoughtfully screened have my seal of approval if you will. not only do i think they would make good wives, but they also would make great mothers. even of four children.
and, they would be able to tell my kids stories about me. and would not be entirely uncomfortable when magnificent charles did so, so that my children would not entirely forget me.
while i agree it would be crass for there to be a wedding picture of magnificent and me on display, none of the potentials would be uncomfortable with the pictures being stored. and i think they are all secure enough to not mind there being a small picture of me placed in a not prominent but not in the pantry either area of the home.
depending on his mood, magnificent either gets annoyed or intrigued when i bring out the list.
i cannot believe that you don’t think i wouldn’t be driven crazy by her 25 birds. i hate birds.
…or….
really? her? why do you think we would be a good match?
he isn’t called magnificent for nothing. never once has he been overly enthusiastic about a choice, saying, "i think so too" or anything incredibly stupid like that.
is this controlling? slightly to medium, oh yes. but it is also my way of telling magchar that i would want him to hustle on with his life. i would want him to be happy, and knowing him, these are the women i think would make him happy. not replacement tess’ (these women actually are all very different than me), but good fits for chuck.
i think it would also be helping him out. remember tom hanks in sleepless in seattle? he only had one young child and didn’t have a clue on how to re-enter the dating world. with four kids it gets a leetle more challenging i suspect, and dates might be at romantic events like elementary school fund raisers and rugby tournaments, but with the help of the list, charles would have names of people to call.
controlling and thoughtful. a nice combination.
i am trying not to dwell on the passion part of the relationship, i am more comfortable thinking mary poppins and chaste cheek kisses, but i do know that they would do it. that just upsets me to think about it, so i am not.
do you have a list? have you handpicked your husband’s next wife? what qualities does she have? is she much different to you?
tell me more.
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i admit that i have thought about it. i also have a list of no’s, but i have yet to come up with a list of yes’s. i also admit to being a very jealous, possessive bitch. that makes it rather difficult for me to admit that anyone else could replace me, but logically i know differently. marshall’s so easy going he can get along with just about anyone. the fact that he has put up with me so long is proof enough of that. for now i’ll stick with working on our wills and such and worry about “the list” later. maybe i’ll just put something in the will that aunt jenny has to approve and let her figure it out :).
oh, and aunt jenny is on the no list, so she can’t pick herself.
no, but I’ve handpicked my next husband and he kives in HK. *L*
I don’t have a list. Since we don’t have children, his activities can be extended beyond school functions. On the other hand, he is an engineer (engineers make very good husbands), so maybe I should make that list…
Okay,
I don’t have an official list but the attributes that the person would have to have for Mike would be a Christian, a great sense of humour (has to be dry), sporty and prepared to give things a go. I guess that that is a lot like me – but if they didn’t have those attributes I do not think that Mike would be interested (and then the relationship would go nowhere).
Hmm ….
No, I don’t have a list. I don’t think I can control who my husband falls in love with after I am gone. I can only trust that he will make the right choice for himself (and our children). After all, he was smart enough to choose me in the first place, right?? 😉 😉
Hubby’s (hopefully never to be realized) next wife would have to have the patience of a saint, be anti-spanking or critical towards my children, honor my memory constantly (heh), and be wealthy so my husband could stay home and raise them. He is a fantastic, super involved father and if he didn’t have to work he would do a beautiful job. She would have to be a heck of a woman (as I would be WATCHING of course 😉
I remember watching Susan Saradon and Julia Roberts in STEPMOM and thinking it such a sad movie. It was, but what a blessing for SS’s character to know and have the chance to spend time with her ‘replacement’.
Wow, now you have me really thinking about this. I wonder who I would want to replace me? He has no interest in my friends, so they’re out. I think if something ever happened to me, he would not remarry. He would date, but not remarry. Hope that our child(ren) are grown before something happens.
Um, what Lala said, and his initials would be MC.
Seriously, though (okay, I was serious in my first sentence, too), I don’t know that DH would marry again. I doubt it very much. And since I’m so totally NOT like his usual choice in women, I can’t even begin to imagine who/what he’d be interested in if I were to be hit by the proverbial bus. (ptooey, ptooey!) And besides, what insane woman would saddle up with triplet toddlers? Okay, so my kids are cute, I’ll give you that, but really. Wouldn’t most women in DH’s available dating pool (he’s in his 50’s) either laugh themselves into a Depends moment or scoff at the notion?
I’ve told my family that if I should pass away they are to hire a nanny for the children so DH doesn’t have to worry about finding a replacement for me.