My wife, the CEO

The following is an illustration of how decisions play out between my wife and I.

Something is going to be purchased, like a gift for one of the children. I know I can count on my wife to do all the research on the gift and read reviews from previous owners of the same. She will speak with friends, other parents, and church goers to get their opinion on the item. She may even poll children in our neighborhood to get their opinion on the positives and negatives of said product. My wife will stress over the different options for the same product. Should she get item A or item B, which are similiar to product X? Item X was her first choice, but has some slight differences in the way their doo-hickeys and what-nots interact with one another than items A and B. My wife will also compare the prices for each of the products. Product A may have more bells and whistles, but it is over priced when compared to product B. Then again, there's item C, which is in between the prices for items A and B, but has a few other doo-hickeys that might appeal to our child, so that may be a good compromise.

Then there's the child in question. Will this child like Product A? Our firstborn might really like Product B, but our second would not care for Product A or anything in the same neighborhood. Then again, the second born child changes moods and interests faster than you can turn on the lights, so she may like Product A after you buy it, even though she doesn't like it now. You also have to consider whether you would be able to resell the item in question in the future. Maybe item A can be resold while it would be impossible to resell item B. You have to take these things into consideration, (or so I'm told). My wife will spend days going through the internet, scouring the different options available. Nights will be spent in anxious pondering about which product to buy. Prayers will be made, asking the Almighty for perspective and guidance on the purchase to be made. I say this with the highest praise for my spouse. She wants to pick the right product for the right child at the right price so that everyone in the family will be happy.

Here's the great thing about this. I know that whenever my wife comes to me with a decision that she's already thought through every possible contingency, price, review, opinion, perspective, positive, negative, and whatever in between. It's like putting a math problem into the IBM Watson computer. Every variable and possibility has been considered and Watson spits out the answer. The only difference between Watson and my wife is that Watson takes .00000001 seconds to come to a conclusion, while the female mind may take a bit longer, (don't ask me about a male's brain). The point is, whenever my wife comes to me and says, "I think we should do/buy X", that I know all I have to say is "okay", because I know she's thought about this 900 times more than I will ever possibly be able to do. I also know she's smart, careful, considerate, kind and respectful in her decision making, so there's only a .000000000001 percent chance that she'll be wrong. It's like if I asked Watson the answer of a calculus equation. I could spend time checking Watson to see if he was right, but I would just be wasting my time. It's the same with my wife.

So I've basically determined that my wife is the CEO of our household. My wife will analyze, study, research, compare, calculate, stress, question, and review the important decisions that need to be made for the Hendley Company. Hours, days, yea even weeks will be spent on the process of calculating the decision. Meanwhile, I am the president. The CEO will walk into my office and say, "I think we should do X". All I have to do, if I have any intelligence at all, is say "okay". (It's kind of like Tony Stark and Pepper Potts without the money, goatee, billions of dollars and Iron Man suit, but I digress). Regardless, at this point in my marriage I don't spend a lot of time asking if she's considered X,Y, or Z because I know she's considered X, Y, and Z to the 4th degree of consideration. I may ask if she's seen my sunglasses, because I can't find them, but that's about it.

Obviously other husbands are not likely to be as blessed to have a CEO like I do. Each woman and man, husband and wife are different in their strengths and mental/emotional make-up. In some marriages the decision making functions may be totally reversed. For me, I know I can trust my CEO to make smart, wise, and well thought out decisions. As the President of the company, I sometimes have to keep my CEO from freaking out about the decisions that need to be made, but it's a burden I'm willing to bear. As President, sometimes you have to do hard things like that, (which includes looking for your sunglasses while the CEO is doing her job). Otherwise, I just have to stamp "OK" on whatever paperwork my CEO brings to me. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.