Why Romance Doesn’t Cure Dead Bedrooms

 

When a husband complains about a dead bedroom, chances are he will get advice telling him to be more romantic. Usually, he’s already doing that, or doing it in so far as his wife allows.

Sadly, it usually won’t cure a dead bedroom.

That’s because the reason she is rejecting or sexually starving him isn’t because of a lack of romance.

What does romancing a woman do?

• It signals his interest.
• It signals his willingness to back up his interest with effort and investment.
• It’s one of many ways to create a bond.

A husband has already done those things on an ongoing basis in extremely significant ways.

This isn’t to say a husband shouldn’t romance his wife. If she wants romance, he should romance her. Because spouses should do certain things for and with each other because the other spouse enjoys that.

A wife isn’t rejecting her husband because of his lack of interest, effort/investment, or bonding. If he didn’t have interest, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to reject him!

She’s rejecting him either because she already has a bond with him and figures she doesn’t need to please him anymore or she is trying to severe their bond. She is sabotaging their relationship. What she wants matters, what he wants doesn’t. She’s exerting control. Her motivations to have sex with him are outweighed, in her mind, by reasons to avoid sex with him, no matter how irrational her thinking. 

Some women deny this because they have a high drive. They insist the husband must be a terrible lover. But many women don’t have a high drive, at least not most of the time. There are husbands who are very romantic and great lovers and are still rejected so that they are having sex infrequently if at all. The average husband is more than willing to do what a wife tells or shows him she needs sexually. But she does have to tell him (sweetly/kindly) or show him.

This is not about women who have some condition or injury that has them in a lot of pain. Of course there are certain things they won’t be doing or won’t be doing often. This is referring to women who, for example, collect and store resentments and decide to punish their husband even if he’s a good man. Nobody’s perfect, and as that record of mistakes or wrongs gets longer and longer, his sex life suffers.

Sometimes, a husband and wife in a dead bedroom might have sex after romance. But generally, romancing a rejecting wife will not cure a dead bedroom. Nor will it that the husband takes on more of the chores.

It’s just one of many reasons more men are joining the marriage strike.

Cause and Effect - Rejecting Your Man

Ladies, if you're married or in a relationship with a man in which you are expecting sexual exclusivity, it is important for you to know something in case you haven't picked up on it before or nobody else has told you yet.

If your man has a libido, and you sexually reject him, that rejection will usually have unpleasant consequences unless the rejection is very rare. What counts as "rejection?" It can range from repeatedly delaying or declining some form or all forms of sex to refusing to try things in which he's expressed interest. Rejection includes him not even bothering to ask/try because he has good reason to believe he'll be shot down. It also includes letting yourself go to the point he loses attraction, or picking fights or nagging to the point he wants nothing to do with you.

The consequences are likely to be one or more of the following, in no particular order:

1. He will be less motivated to do things for you. This ranges from chores you want done that he doesn't care much about to anniversary celebrations, vacations, and expensive gifts.
   
   
2. He will be less open with you about his feelings, desires, fantasies, and thoughts.
   
   
3. He will cut back on other forms of affection and intimacy. This might mean spending less time with you, less touch, fewer compliments, etc.
   
   
4. He will be irritable, grumpy, or snarky.
   
   
5. He will occupy himself or numb the pain with substances (food, alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, etc.) or more hobbies/more time on hobbies that don't involve you.
   
   
6. He will masturbate (more), and that masturbation will be likely to involve porn (visual and written), videos and images of exes or other people he knows, memories and fantasies of exes, fantasies of other people, etc.
   
   
7. He will get it elsewhere.
   
1. Ongoing affairs
2. Flings
3. Hookups/One night stands/Booty calls
4. Sex worker
5. Sexting/Video chat/chats/online forums/apps
    
8. He will leave.
   

He might not think "Because she won't do this, I'm going to do that." Maybe he will, maybe it will just be what happens without him actually thinking it through. I'm not saying these things are all right or justified. Nor am I saying you should do things you don't want to do. I'm not denying some men behave this way even if you're a great lover. I'm simply informing you of reality: men react in these ways to sexual rejection by a woman they expect to be their lover. Don't expect he'll warn you about these things ahead of time or tell you after the fact, even if you ask him directly. What's his incentive to tell you?

You might not care. You might have things the way you want them. But you're most likely delusional if you think there is no consequence you don't like when you reject him.
 
If you can't handle this, it might be a good idea not to ask for, or agree to, a supposedly exclusive relationship. Or, resolve to be a good, enthusiastic, available lover to him, because if you've picked a good man and you treat him right, he's not going to leave or go elsewhere, and he will do what he can to meet your needs and desires.

Do Married Men Get It More and Better?

Marriage sellers will often say married people have more and better sex than unmarried people.

Unmarried men should not fall for this.

Stop reading now if you don't want the brutal truth.

How Many Other Husbands Live Like This?

This past Friday, June 17, 2022, during Hour 3 of the Dr. Laura Program, she took a call from a man who has been married for over 30 years. He and his wife have no kids. 

He has been very frustrated because they only have sex once every month or two, and his wife has never had much sexual passion. They've seen therapists, doctors, pastors, etc. about this.

They married in their mid-twenties and had waited until they married to have sex. Actually, they waited even longer because she was "too tired" on their wedding night.

Dr. Laura gave him what regular listeners would expect her to give him: the choice to either stay and accept it, or leave. 

He said he won't leave, because of his vows.

This call was important for multiple reasons:

1) "Waiting" for marriage is not risk-free. While some people claim they are waiting for moral or religious reasons, some people wait because they aren't interested in having sex, at least not with the person they are marrying. Even people who display some passion before marrying, even engaging in various forms of sex and frequently at that, might pull back after marrying (or having children). But at least in those cases, their spouse knows they are capable of sexually satisfying them.

2) Contrary to what marriage sellers imply and encourage people to infer, there are married men who are extremely dissatisfied with their marital sex life.

3) People who save sex for marriage tend to be the type of person to stay in the marriage even if they're miserable (and they are also the type to say they're not miserable even though they are).

4) Unless they believe otherwise, clergy need to make it clear that, at some point, willful sexual neglect is unfaithfulness or abandonment to the point of a breaking of the vows and releases the other spouse.

This guy is going to go his whole life never having experienced a good sex life.

He bought into "sex is for marriage" without realizing that the Bible (which is likely THE or at least AN authority for his belief system) never says people need to get a terrible marriage contract from a secular state, nor does it specify what makes someone married, but most importantly to his situation, it never specifies that all sexual acts are forbidden before marriage. There may have been ways he could have avoided this situation.

Even after waiting for months/years, it can be understandable that someone is too tired to do anything on the evening after the wedding, although that's an argument for small, simple weddings. Then this poor sap probably thought she just needed some time, or that he was doing things wrong. Nobody wants to admit they made a huge mistake while they are probably still paying off the wedding or sending out thank you cards. As time slipped by, he was deeper and deeper into the mess, not wanting to admit his mistake or be branded with "divorced" or "annulled," wondering if he is undesirable, not wanting to hire lawyers and go to court, probably being told by some he just needs to be more romantic and understanding, and doing more around the home (remember, no kids). That poor man.

Although Dr. Laura didn't bring it up in this call, what she might have told his wife if she had been the one to make the call is she should choose one of the following for her husband:

1) Masturbate to porn
2) Divorce her

3) Frequent prostitutes

4) Have a mistress

My guess is that is wife would reject any of those. If she found him masturbating and/or viewing porn, she'd probably play the martyr and justify mistreating him.

Gee, you unmarried guys, why haven't you rushed to sign a terrible state contract with a woman???

Stay free, men!

Why Do Men Like Lingerie?

Why do men like lingerie?

For men who like women to wear lingerie, there are two basic reasons:

1) It looks more revealing and sexier than baggy sweatpants, granny panties, or just about anything else a woman would wear other than skimpy swimsuits or revealing yoga pants.

2) It signals she's feeling sexual or is willing to get sexual. There are swimsuits more revealing than some lingerie, but the swimsuit signals she's going to hang out by the pool, on the beach, or sun herself. There are yoga pants more revealing than some lingerie, but again, yoga pants don't signal "Let's get sexual."

Most men prefer women to be entirely naked rather than in lingerie. But most men do prefer lingerie to regular clothing or pajamas that don't reveal much.

Some women find lingerie figure-flattering, accentuating certain parts of their body and hiding things about which they are unhappy or self-conscious. We get that. But women do tend to be far more critical of their own bodies than men, especially a man who is with them. But if it helps her feel more confident and helps her to be more enthusiastic, that's definitely a plus.

When a wife surprises her husband with wearing lingerie, especially if he normally has to persuade her to agree to sex, it can be a nice surprise to him.

I plan to write more about why men like certain things when it comes to women. I fully get it that some women, even some women who claim to be heterosexual, don't give a rat's behind about what men like. But there may be a few women who are curious, and I can be honest. Maybe you can put what I tell you to good use?

Also, as with anything else, especially anything sexual, "men like" is a generalization. There will ALWAYS be outliers or a minority of men who think/feel differently. In this case, that means a few men will find lingerie a turn off, or will prefer it to nudity.

Let’s Check Up on a Marital Bed Again

It’s been over a year since I posted this.

So, we’ve had another year, another anniversary, our birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and so on.

The kids are older and more self-sufficient.

Speaking of anniversaries, I was happy, but didn’t let myself get too happy, that our anniversary prompted my wife to look again for “adult” items, such as toys. I told her it meant a lot to me and I presented excitement and enthusiasm. The business she bought from has a clever marketing/sales strategy, so she bought plenty of items, supposedly at low prices.

The reason I secretly tempered my excitement is that she’s bought toys, games, and other items before. They hardly get used. We have at least one activity book that’s gone unused - ever. She took a look through it and that was it.

But… I wanted to encourage her effort this time, even knowing it wasn’t going to lead to much in the short term and even less in the long term.

Yes, we’ve tried out most of what she bought. Most stuff got tried…once.

When you’re only getting sexual once every few weeks or less, bells and whistles are likely to be neglected.

I mean, what can I expect when we left town (at great expense and hassle) for our anniversary and, per her planning, we brought the kids with us, and they stayed with us in the same room?

Yes, we could send them out of the room, and we did. But… really.

She knows we don’t do it enough. She knows her inhibitions are restrictive. She has said both of those truths. But she’s not doing anything to change it. And there’s nothing I can do change it.

On the plus side, she hasn’t added new restrictions since my previous post. That might be because I learned not to bring the subjects of not getting enough sex/wanting to do certain things; she took those opportunities in the past to say boner-killing stuff and add more restrictions.

So, here we are.

If you’re not married, don’t lock yourself into that terrible state contract, guys. Stay free. If you want female companionship, running game will get you plenty with little cost or trouble. If you absolutely must be what you’ll think is monogamous, you still should avoid that terrible state contract.

Why Do Women Have Sex?

Despite what certain activists and college professors say, men and women are different, and some of the significant differences are inborn. So the answer to "Why do women have sex?" isn't the same as the answer to "Why do men have sex?" We have different reasons, and even the reasons that sound the same can be different when prioritization or emphasis is considered.

Each reason only applies to some women. Some women who have sex have many reasons to have sex, some only a few or one.

I'm not a woman. This list is based on what women have said and done, and what I know about biology and sociology. If you know additional reasons, especially if you're a woman, tell me in the comments and maybe they will be added (you can also mention in the comment whether or not you want the comment published). This list is in no particular order.

Being His Lover - Part 2: He Wants To Satisfy You

In Part 1 of this series, I explained that, if most relationships with a man, being a good lover is important and it can be easy.

But it's not all about him.

Unless you chose poorly, your man wants you to be sexually satisfied. He wants to rock your world.

But men are not mind readers, so you have to clearly tell us or, even better, show us what you want, what gets your toes curling, what makes you feel loved. (If you don't already know, you'll need to think about it and also probably get to "know" yourself much better.)

We will do it!

Constructive encouragement and clever redirection will help. Criticism or complaining will destroy. Penises don't take criticism well, and men generally have fragile egos when it comes to sex.

Is he doing something you don't like? Is there something you'd rather he be doing at that moment? "Beg" for him to do X, which gets him to stop doing Y without you saying "Don't do Y!" Or tell him, "What will really drive me wild right now is if you..."

"Yesss!" is great. Examples:
"Yes, just like that."
"Yes, don't stop!"
"Yes, a little higher."
"Yes, a little lower."
"Yes, a little to the side."
"Yes, a little faster."
"Yes, a litter slower."
"Yes, a little softer."
"Yes, a little harder."

After everything is over, like the next day or something, reinforce for him what you liked. "Thank you so much. It was especially great when you..." You might also say, "I'm a little curious. Maybe one of these days we could try..."

We also don't want to be selfish, so if it is one of those occasions you're unprepared or unwilling to let him "get you there" but you still see the benefit of "taking care" of him, tell him that in a way that doesn't make it sound like sex is a burden or you're not interested or he's unattractive to you. That can be something like saying in a sultry voice, "Ooh, I want to do this so bad. Just let me do this, this time while you just relax and enjoy." If he thinks you enjoy doing something sexual to him for the sheer sake of him enjoying it, that's a turn-on and a great feeling to a man.

Rejection hurts. It can ruin your relationship. If he's feeling horny but you are not in the mood and he's not going to be able to get you into the mood, instead of "Ugh, not again!" it would be much better to say and do something like "Hey, stud, how about you relax and let me..." You can fill in the blank. Of course there will be times in which any form of sex is not going to work for you at all, and if you married a good man, he will accept that. It is best if you reassure him you love him and love what you do together even as you "postpone" a session.

If he can't tell if you still need to orgasm, you want (another) one, he's probably done, and he doesn't have the presence of mind to ask if there is anything else he can do for you, you can try "I'm enjoying this so much, let's keep going." Show him/tell him what to do. "I need your talented tongue..." or "I need your fantastic fingers..."

I come (no pun intended) from the school of "she comes first." Hopefully, you can get him to adopt that if he hasn't already. The only drawback to that is that if it is one of those times you don't want to try or you know it's not going to happen, he has to switch to accepting that he gets it without you getting it. The problem with male physiology is that unless we're in an extremely, extraordinarily arousing situation, we lose our erection after orgasm and lose our interest for a bit, almost like some women apparently feel for the rest of their live after they eat their wedding cake (or, after they're done having kids, or have hit menopause). But we can be back to being erect and eager in a short amount of time, especially under the right circumstances.

Positive reinforcement and playful redirection are your friends. He's not a mind reader. He wants to please you. But you have to let him, and you have to show him how.

Being His Lover - Part 1: It Is Important and It Can Be Easy

This is going to talk bluntly about sex, and is intended to help women.

Assuming you married, or will marry or partner up with, a "typical" good man and not some sort of very odd guy or a bad man, it will help your relationship and benefit you much to be a great lover.

Sex is extremely important to most men. That's just the way God or nature made us. If you think it's just a matter of how we've been socialized, consider gay male subcultures and history. Even though our culture hasn't traditionally socialized men/boys to be gay, gay men demonstrate almost all of the same sexual nature found in heterosexual men as far as how important sex is, being visually stimulated and wanting to see skin, the desire for variety, enjoying the sight of others but still being happy and attracted to their lover, and more. And yeah, there are some women who feel a need for a lot of sex, women appreciate a good hardbody on a man, some women want sexual variety, but for most women, it's just not the same. Comparing men as a group and women as a group, and the "average" man and "average" woman, the male sex drive is far stronger, desire for diversity much more persistent, and the spectrum of attraction enormously wider.

The good news for women is that being a great lover is entirely within your power. You don't have to look like a swimsuit model. Also, if you are a great lover, most other things don't even matter, or matter much less. If you dented the car or he had a bad day at work, a good lovemaking session is likely to put him in a much better mood.

You don't have to talk with him for a long time, take him to dinner and a movie, bring him flowers or gifts, light candles, etc. All you have to do is please his peter, which you can do with your hands, mouth, breasts, and/or your "other cheeks" with or without showing any other skin. Or, if he's like me, getting his face between your thighs also works. Boom. He's having a better day. He could be watching sports, or doing any number of things that aren't sexy or romantic, and you can still get him aroused and to orgasm with no other preparation except maybe lubricant. (But if he's watching his favorite team, it's best to wait until it's over or until the halftime break, if there is one, unless what you're doing doesn't obstruct his view.)

There's a lot more to say, so I've decided to break this up into a series.

Part 2: He Wants to Satisfy You

Shame on Him For Trying to Please His Wife

Dr. Laura usually gets it right and helps a lot of people, especially the people listening to her program.

Six minutes into the podcast of her program for Friday, February 4, 2022, her first caller was "Peggy."

Peggy sounded nervous, she said she was nervous, and when the call started she couldn't hear Dr. Laura well at first, but that was soon corrected.

PEGGY: I've been married for 25 years. I'm 66 years old, it's my second marriage. My husband is 72. In the beginning of our relationship we fell in love really fast[1], we had great sexual chemistry, and really will still do have great sexual chemistry. The problem is, when I was much younger, I could be multiorgasmic. Over the years that has waned, as I think is a normal type of thing. But my husband still thinks I'm multiorgasmic, and I've faked orgasms, because-

DR. LAURA INTERRUPTING: I don't really understand that. Both of you don't look as good as you used to look when you were younger, nor when you first met. [Dr. Laura continues to talk about looks, skin, etc., to try to make the point that they've "adapted" to that.] You've decided to play a game and not trust your man. You've not explained to him that "My sexuality has changed, one, on the outside, two, I'm good, I'm really good. I feel great. I don't need to have the 82 while you're still up. It just doesn't work that way anymore because I'm sixty-something." Tell the truth. You don't have to tell him you've been faking it. Just start telling him the truth from now on.

PEGGY: I've left this one little piece out. I-

DR. LAURA INTERRUPTING: WHY? Shhh! Shhh! Shhh! I KNOW you're hearing "shush." I know you're hearing that. Why should I listen to the thing you're going to drop in that you didn't think was important enough to put up front?[2]

PEGGY: [Apologizes]

DR. LAURA: Why did you hold it back? "I held it back because..."

PEGGY: I held it back because I should have started with that instead of trying to add it at the end. I should have started with what I was going to say to you. 

DR. LAURA: And the reason you didn't start with it is...?

PEGGY: Because I'm nervous-

[Eventually Peggy is allowed to continue.]

PEGGY: I'm going to say recently, without the last six to eight months, we just made a move. We moved from one state to another state and we're in the middle of building a house. Sometimes we don't have time for sex because we're very busy.[3] My husband started buying these toys for me, like vibrators and so on. Because I did tell him, you know "I am getting older, I'm tired, I'm good with one or two orgasms" and if we don't do it every night for him he seems so disappointed. And last week he was pushing pushing pushing- 

DR. LAURA INTERRUPTING: SHHHH SHHHHH SHHH "Honey, I love you. Pushing is not sexy. It's not romantic, and it's not loving. It's treating me like a prostitute.[4] You've decided you need a sexual release every day and I should do it no matter how I feel. That's not loving." It's called truth. [Dr. Laura repeats how it's not sexy, not romantic, the truth, etc. - PLEASE NOTE that it is her program and she can repeat as much as she wants, even though she tells callers not to repeat.] Is he taking pills or testosterone?

PEGGY: No, and he doesn't always take care himself. He wants to please me, because he thinks I need to be pleased that much. 

DR. LAURA: Then you need to tell him the truth. Your drop-in precludes him caring about you. It doesn't sound like he cares about you. If he doesn't do it every night he's disappointed. That's not caring about you. You've been misinterpreting that dear.[5]

Since Dr. Laura encouraged Peggy to say "the truth" to her husband, Peggy said he was on a business trip, apparently to indicate that she'd talk to him when she could do so face-to-face. Dr. Laura cut her off and said "and there's no such thing as a phone."[6] Then hung up on her before she could say more on the air, as she was trying.

Notes:

1. Dr. Laura will often stop callers and ask how fast things happened. She also usually asks what happened to the first marriage. It might be relevant. She wasn't interested enough to ask this time, probably because the marriage has lasted so long.

2. The real answer is that she didn't include that because Dr. Laura cut her off. The stuff Peggy had said was all necessary background. Dr. Laura had cut her off and didn't let her include everything. But Peggy can't say that because Dr. Laura will get irritated at least, and might hang up. So for a couple of minutes, the call is going to be critiquing HOW the caller has done the call so far and trying to get the caller to say WHY it happened that way, making the caller make something up.

3. Dr. Laura has told many other callers they have to make time and energy for sex. The have to drop something else, or get help with other things, to make their marriage their priority. That went unsaid this time.

4. Got that, guys? "Pushing" for sex is treating your wife like a prostitute. Prostitutes get paid for sex. Wives get paid, period.

5. This is Dr. Laura trying to save face. Peggy made it very clear, even though she was cut off more than once, that her husband isn't trying to get himself off, he's trying to make sure his wife, who apparently had a high drive and has previously enjoyed multiple orgasms each time, is satisfied. That's why he bought vibrators. What Peggy was looking for was how to tell him she is no longer able to orgasm as much and that there's nothing wrong with that and he's not letting her down.

6. Dr. Laura has, in other situations, urged people to talk face-to-face.

It's possible there was something on her screen or Peggy had sent an email and Dr. Laura was taking that into account, but we can only evaluate the call based on what was said on the program.

Guys, avoid these problems. Stay free!!!

A Glimpse Into Married Romance

My wife and I take turns arranging for romantic evenings/days. These aren't very frequent, but we alternate anyway. Either way, I'm the breadwinner so it's paid for from my earnings.

This time it was her turn to plan.

Trying to Make a Bad Situation A Little Bit Better

There's a lot of advice out there about keeping or reviving the  - romance, spark, passion or whatever words you want to use - in a marriage.

Why is that?

It's because so many married people lose that spark, lose that attraction, lose that fun, lose that passion.

This is why so many men are just fine dating a woman for three months and then not really caring if she stops seeing him ("Where is this relationship going???"). Such men are constantly finding other women, and they know the sex is never going to get any better than those first few months. Some marriage advocates balk at that and insist the sex gets better in good marriages, and to some extent I agree, but I also know most men want variety and excitement in sex more than emotional intimacy. And most marriages aren't good most of the time.

Anyway, the latest bit of advice about trying to arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic comes from Dr. Laura. She posted this on her website: "10 Ways to Rekindle the Romance in Your Marriage"

You might think that trying to rekindle the romance in your marriage is heavy stuff.

Revisiting My Series on the Claim Married Men Get More Sex

[Bumped up from December 2016] I wrote a seven-part series for this blog that ran in February and March of 2010. A lot has happened since then. I have done more reflection, I've had significant life experiences since then, I have learned much more about my wife, and so I thought it would be a good time to revisit what I wrote back then.

From Part One:

We've been having quick, rather vanilla/repetitive/almost clinical, once-a-week, mostly one-sided sessions for quite a while now, usually involving her waking me up from a dead sleep (I don't get enough sleep as it is), though not as creatively as she could. That means we've been doing it 4-5 times a month (and usually not taking her to climax, which I really, really like doing). There's no way we've averaged 9.94 times a month when considering the whole marriage.
Verdict: I am currently one of the people who can say I got more sex while unmarried than married.

Geez, I thought I had it bad then. It's been more like once every three weeks now, although my wife has just agreed to try to get it up to three times per week. The problem is, after everything that's happened and the things she's said repeatedly, including recently, and done, it is difficult for me to be turned on to her. Sex is a burden and chore for her and she deliberately avoids orgasms except for rare times. Yes, I'm still physically attracted to her and want to enjoy her body and treat her well, but treating her well seems to be leaving her alone, and emotionally it's a mess. Like just about every other plan to which she agrees, the plan to at least make out more often will probably be dropped quickly.

An Enthusiastic Wife Can Make a Big Difference

Or, How to Be a Snake Charmer.

This entry is going to be mostly about male sexual performance and is going to get somewhat explicit. If you don't want to read about that, you are warned.

Sacrificing Much-Needed Sleep For Lackluster Lovemaking

After two and a half weeks since our last, and decidedly bland sex session, my wife stopped filibustering.

She'd asked me to finish some necessary tasks early enough that we could have time with each other. Usually, this "promise" of hers is hollow, or at least turns out not to come to fruition. And no, I don't always wait for her to initiate. I do try to initiate and usually get shot down or put off (which usually ends up being shot down). On the flip side, I don't think there's been a single time I've put her off when she has initiated, as I don't mind her initiating and actually enjoy it because it makes me feel wanted.

So, I made sure that everything was taken care of "early enough". I shaved (even though it would screw up my shave for work) and showered - and there's never any chance she'll surprise me in the shower. I made sure she knew when I was all done.

It's funny, that I bother to shower for these sessions, really, because she barely gets near me. But I did.

Finally, with about five hours to go until I'd be waking up for another full day of work, she sent me a text that she'd be right in. She's likely finishing watching a show, which she could resume watching whenever she wants, mind you.

She finally made it in half an hour after she sent the text, meaning it was now four and a half hours of sleeping time left, if I were to go to sleep right then.

Now, it's true I could have gone to sleep the moment after I was done with the grooming and cleaning. The problem with that is that she wouldn't have woken me up, and I would have gone an additional four-to-seven days before possibly getting a chance for sex again.

The rest of this entry is a little explicit, so here's your warning.

Conditions Under Which My Wife Will Have Sex With Me

In case the title of this entry wasn't enough warning, this entry is entirely about marital sex.

Gazing at the Horizon

There's not really much I look forward to these days.

For as long as I can remember back into my childhood, I was not one of those kids who wanted to be older. I didn't mind being the age I was. I didn't mind not being able to drive, or buy booze, or whatever. In fact, I didn't run out and get my license as soon as I could, like so many other teens did. I knew that time was a one-way arrow, and that I was never going to be whatever age I was again.

Even so, there were events, milestones and goals to which I had to anticipate, plan, prepare, or strive:

• Every year, there was Halloween and Christmas, which were always fun for me. Birthday... eh... I think my parents gave each of us one big party during our childhoods, and the rest of the years it wasn't a big event. 
• Get through the school year so you can enjoy Summer Vacation. 
• Going on family trips/vacations
• Sports in which I was participating
• Do well in elementary school to prepare for junior high (we didn't have middle school back in the dark ages). 
• Do well in junior high and high school so you can get into college. Where I lived, the question was never "Are you going to college?" It was "Where are you going to college?" We were also told that unless we get all As and Bs, had all sorts of extracurricular activities, and saved a life, we'd never get into college.
• Get a girlfriend. I didn't really get a serious girlfriend until I was 19. I was painfully shy and mostly pined after girls from afar, not really ever going to parties (not aware of most of them until after they happened) but rather buried in schoolwork, you know, because otherwise I'd never ever get into college and I'd end up living under a bridge.
• As I got older, events related to my hobby, which was tied in to my professional ambitions. Even the job I got while in high school was related to this.
• Get through college so I can get a job. I didn't really look forward to moving out. I had it pretty good at home. In fact, my parents found me an apartment near campus and I moved out to make attending school easier.
• Get an internship in the career of my choice. Did that while still in college. Didn't lead to a job.

Before I knew it, college was over and I was still working in pretty much the same job I had when I was 17. I tried to get hired in my chosen career. Despite my relevant experience, my degree, and my connections, it didn't happen. Considering how the industry is these days, with everyone either being hired as contractors with contracts that never last more than a few years to employees who are constantly let go and bouncing from company to company, it is probably just as well because I wouldn't have done well with the instability.

Needing more income and what would be considered more professional experience, I took one of those jobs considered "professional", but not something/somewhere to which people aspire. Nobody you ask in college would say, "That's what I want to do and where I want to work!"

And I did well enough.

I wanted to get married and have kids. I did that.

I wanted to buy a house. I did that. Well, I'm paying a mortgage on a house anyway.

Now what?

I spent so much of my life trying to get from one point to another, and then I'd finally arrived "there". Oh sure, that ideal professional ambition will probably never be fulfilled, and I'm not actively trying to make it happen. Not only do I need stability but my family sure as heck needs stability.

Our house isn't in the best neighborhood, but we have no plans or aspirations to move. We bought the place with the expectation that we'd die there.

My wife says I gave her the life she's always wanted.

I don't really have time or money for my hobbies.

So, I literally have nothing for which I am looking forward.

Oh, sure, someday I hope to retire, and I'm making investments towards that end, but I'm not expecting that the Mrs. and I will be doing a lot of traveling or anything like that after I retire.

And someday, should the Lord tarry, I will expire, and I look forward to being free of the "old man" and being with Him, whether He returns before I die or not.

My work is not the sort for which there are things to which I look forward. I do my work. I finish this and that. And on it goes. I do it for the compensation, not personal satisfaction or enjoyment.

So I suppose what I have to look forward to would be the milestones for my children.

More immediately, the only thing to which I look forward is lovemaking with my wife. No kidding. And that's rather sad and depressing, because:

• she has zero libido these days
• she now rarely has orgasms (which I've always enjoyed giving)
• it happens less than twice a week
• when it does happen, I feel pressured to hurry up and get it over with because it is just an obligatory chore for her, per the first two points
• there are things I enjoy that are not unusual that she's not willing to do/go along with, and other restrictions that make the lovemaking less appealing to me and more difficult

At this point in my life, all I want besides the basics for my family, is a good sex life with my wife, and it's not going to happen without some radical changes and a whole lot of work.

If I was a pessimist, I'd say she'll probably become one of those horny middle-aged women (like the one who broke me in) just after I'm struck with some health problem that kills me or leaves me impotent.

Sorry that this entry hasn't been more uplifting. How's this? I live in the USA, I have my health, my family, my home, a job, and enjoy attending a church, and can do so with a reasonable assurance I won't be killed or jailed for doing so.

I Don't Like It When My Wife Makes That Promise

This is one of those times when I feel like some ungrateful murmurer, because I've been blessed so much but I'm going to grip anyway.


Some marriage-minded counselors and advice dispensers tell wives to tease their husbands, indicating what she's going to do later when they're alone, in private. This is supposed to be a turn on, and supposed to get the man to hurry home from where he is like a trained seal.

For me, it is a turn off. Why? More often than not... probably nine times out of ten, when my wife promises me sex at a specified later time (later that same day, or the next day), often while rejecting me at the moment, it doesn't end up happening. Something gets in the way, such as getting to the point in the day when I'm facing six hours of sleep or less, and since I'm already tired, she defers, claiming it to be for my own good. Or, believe or not, it is because she wants me to shave right before, and she doesn't want me to shave at that moment because she wants my shave to be closer for whatever will follow later (work or personal). Or because it is that time of the month. Or because she isn't feeling well. Or because, sleep and sex deprived, I'm grouchy and that turns her off.

The promise of getting it later is not done in a flirty way. My wife gave up flirting a long time ago, claiming she doesn't know how. It's more like scheduling a meeting.

So, her use of that tactic is a diversion rather than priming the pump.

Now I'm going to get into some details of what happened between us the other night in bed, so if you don't want to read that, you are warned. It isn't too graphic.

Why Some Husbands Start Hanging Out in Sports Bars

Overall, things really aren't bad in my life, and things are actually good for the most part in my marriage. At least, that's my perception. Maybe I'm delusional. Consider...

In a previous posting, I mentioned how I committed my wife. They didn't see a reason to keep her past the 72-hour hold, so out she came. She even joked about the experience. I couldn't laugh about it.

We discussed what needed to change about our lives to avoid getting to this point again.

And then I realized I had made a tactical error by not being the one to be hospitalized first. All of the changes we discussed are going to make things easier for her, but many of them are going to make things more difficult for me. As it was, before all of this happened, my father had expressed concern that I was going to wind up in an emergency room, as he did right before my mother gave birth to their third child.

We've put some of the changes into practice. Others we haven't. For example, we're still in the process of finding a marriage counselor (she wasn't happy with the one we went to last year). I'm not really sure what a marriage counselor can do.

The marriage counselor can't make my wife's physical condition, which I was mislead about, get better.

The marriage counselor can't find more time. In fact, the counseling is going to mean out time will be even more taxed.

Perhaps we're going to pick the kind of marriage counselor who is going to tell me to take on even more of a load? What am I going to do? Explicity say in front of my wife and the counselor that I've been a victim of fraud, and there's nothing I can do about it now because I don't want my kids to have a broken home, and after my kids are grown, the laws & courts would ---- me over too much for me to want to initiate divorce, seeing as how I will have been the sole income earner and we will be long past the magical ten-year mark?

The other day, my wife was looking for a home video and she was struck by how nice her breasts used to be. Actually, they've never been spectacular, but I was fine with that. Breastfeeding and a lot of pumping and starving herself (not while pregnant or breastfeeding, thankfully) took a mighty toll on her breasts. So now, or the first time, she's talking about getting implants/enchancement surgery sometime in the vague future. Geez. Look, I'm the kind of guy who still wears glasses because I'm too cheap to pay for laser eye surgery. I pointed that out to her. If I haven't spent the money on that, why would I want to spend the money on fake boobs? I also told her I was fine with the way she is. Really, what's been my alternative? Tell her she needs to have her breasts done and thereby further reduce the frequency of my access to her body? I also asked her who she is trying to attract. She already has me. She insists it is for her own image. I cited what Dr. Laura says... it is OK if it is to "fix something that was broken", not to turn perfectly fine B or C cups into something larger.

The rest of this is about marital sex, if you don't want to read, don't click through.

Give Your Breath Away

Dr. Laura linked to this article, "5 Reasons to Make Some Noise in the Bedroom", in her daily list of recommended articles. I wonder if she noticed or cared that the author is an "open marriage" advocate, or if she figures "all truth is God’s truth" and questionable sources can still provide worthwhile reading? The author says what I've referred to as "aural sex" can be a matter of health.

Breathing deeply can increase pleasure. It can also keep the fun from ending too soon. Use your breath to regulate the speed of what’s going on. Speed it up to help get you in the mood, and slow it down to prolong the activities.

It's good to use everything we can, right?

It means your partner knows that you are enjoying it.

YES! That’s very important for me to know, anyway.

It keeps you in the moment. If you spend all of your time in bed thinking about keeping quiet so you don't sound "weird,” you’ll miss all of the fun. But, if instead of worrying about how noisy you are, you simply let the sounds fall where, when, and how they may, you can stay present and enjoy all of the presents your partner is gifting you.

We know from other areas of life that thinking about breathing and being deliberate about breathing can impact our physical and mental state.

It shows intimacy. If you can tell your partner what you want in bed, it means you feel close enough to him or her to be comfortable doing that.

I need to work on that. See below.

It means you’re comfortable with your sexuality. Letting it all out is only possible when you feel good about yourself and what you're doing, which is how everyone should feel when it comes to sex.

Here's where I get personal...