A couple of days ago, my Dad dropped a bombshell on me and I’m sure he didn’t even realize it. We were driving to a government office when out of nowhere he started talking about marriage.

At first I thought he was going to join the choir querying my lack of marriage possibilities. Instead he said that we, my siblings and I, are lucky that our parents’ marriage is stable and that we grew up in an area where most of the families were led by both a father and a mother. I agreed and started off calling out the names of the families that I grew up around.
Then I mentioned one family and my Dad said, “Well, you know that lady said the father had a lady friend.” He said it to nonchalant and he was busy driving that he didn’t see this expression on my face.



So I started to think back and I realized something that has left me shell shocked (it’s only wearing off now). My parents are the exception to the rule!! If I really look at it, there were a couple single mothers, in one case a mother was away studying and, what I found out recently, a couple fathers had women on the side. Can I sign up to have those brain cells destroyed? Do you think I can get one of those pen like things they have on Men In Black on Ebay.


Ignorance is bliss!

This reminds me so much of the movie, He’s Just Not Into You, where if something out of the ordinary happened to the distant associate of a friend of yours, that is the exception of the rule. As Gigi put it

Girls are taught a lot of stuff growing up. If a guy punches you he likes you. Never try to trim your own bangs and someday you will meet a wonderful guy and get your very own happy ending. Every movie we see, Every story we're told implores us to wait for it, the third act twist, the unexpected declaration of love, the exception to the rule. But sometimes we're so focused on finding our happy ending we don't learn how to read the signs.

But then it did end nicely when you become the exception to the rule.
Cute Ending

So what? Should we believe the fantasy that has been forced fed to us since our parents started reading fairytales to us when we were in nappies? Should we aim to be exceptions to the rule? Sometimes I think I think too much about this topic. But if you look at the numbers based on my childhood neighbor hood the probability of having a relationship like my parents is 2 in 10, that is fugging 20%!!! I think I’m going to need therapy.

I guess I will follow Gigi's quote above and look for the signs. Ain't life a bitch.