My new "in-crowd"

"Everybody Loves Raymond" is a terrible show.  It shows all the things that are wrong with the perception of an American marriage.  It shows a bumbling idiot husband who is completely inept in everything except pissing off his wife.  It shows that the wife is most proficient in being a shrill, joyless bitch.  It is not just this show either- American television has a rich history of showing us this perception of marriage and unfortunately in this case life imitates art.  I find myself sometimes reaching for a laugh at the expense of my wife too many times.  I just did it the other day when I referred to my marriage as a "hostage situation" when talking about shopping with her on "Black friday" all for nothing more than to get a couple of hyucks and some people to click "like" but it is not fair.  My wife and I actually had a wonderful time this weekend; we spent a couple of hours on Thanksgiving night going to Meijer and Toys R' Us and there were some tepid moments between us but once we communicated to each other that we are here for the "Black Friday" experience and we could spend the time not only maybe finding a deal or two (which we did) but we could also poke some fun at the good folks who live for the "Black friday" experience.  We had a great time. 

We also "Had" to drive to Wisconsin to see her family and I spent most of the week leading up to it complaining about the drive.  Not seeing her family, because I love her family, but the drive seemed to be laborious to me and I really wanted to just hang out and watch Spartan football.  But once I got over my selfish BS, my wife, kids and myself had a pretty pleasant weekend, we found ourselves reminissing about when Seth was just little and Sam saying:  "Where was I?" and we didn't have anyway to answer that except "You weren't born yet?"  and he would say:  "But I wanted to be there." It is becoming abundantly clear to me that every time I slam my marriage or complain about time with my family that I am doing them a great disservice because I am telling the rest of the world that "I don't like being married or I wish I didn't have to spend so much time with my kids."  and that could not be further from the truth.  I truly love the close knit group of friends that I have accumulated over the years and I cherish my time with them dearly but I have reached the point in my life where my "in-crowd" is my wonderful, supportive wife Lori, my very talented, sweet 11 year old son Seth and my firecracker cutie 4 year old son Sam.  Call it bad-mouthing, venting or just joking but it is something that I need to stop doing so much.  Marriage and family is really great despite what you see on TV.