Controlling His Social Life

I want to thank Joan for bringing up the topic of ‘the husband’s time with friends,’ in the comments in my March 28th post. For reference, here are the comments she made:

“I’m a little less strict about allowing him some time to be with his friends (they love the outdoors) because he does so much work. I’m flexible with certain expectations, but I’m won’t tolerate things not getting done, if that makes sense”.

“With job stress and Mistress Joan to answer to, he needs a break and earns the downtime I permit. With that said, he knows to conduct himself properly and avoid any and all problems, especially when the men are out in the forest camping and having a few beers. I think his friends are fairly sure of who exactly wears the pants in our marriage. They are very well behaved and gentlemen in my home..”

-Joan

When it comes to WLM, the question is not whether the wife should have control over her husband’s social life (It’s an obvious yes!) but rather how much control should she exert. Like many other things, there is no one right answer. It depends on the current dynamics of the relationship. In this post I’ll share how I handle it in my own marriage and will present some considerations to help female leaders with this aspect of WLM.

Let me start by saying that it is surprising to me how many couples I come across that do not socialize together frequently. I am talking about everyday couples in traditional marriages. I know of couples where the husband does his things and the wife does her things and they rarely socialize together or socialize among their mix of friends. That is a problem and a sign of a troubled marriage in my opinion. You are supposed to marry your soul mate and best friend so why would you not want to spend a good portion of your social time with your spouse? Without time together, a couple grows apart and loses intimacy and that special connection they found when they first met.

Prior to WLM, Thomas and I did most things as a couple. We each also had our own subset of friends that we did things with on our own. I always felt that we had a good balance between those two types of socialization. However, one of the unexpected benefits that we experienced with WLM is that we spend more quality time together and are much more open in our communication with each other. Instead of sitting on the couch watching TV, he is often giving me massages, serving as my footstool, or doing other things to serve and pamper me. Our intimacy is much deeper then it ever was prior to WLM. When were together there is a playfulness and connection between us, versus us just sitting in the room together doing our own thing. The connection is hard to describe but it is definitely something that developed as a result of my control over him and his submission to me.

Because we’ve always had a good balance with how we spend time with friends, when we transitioned to WLM there was not a need for me to significantly alter his social life. However, I exerted control over it because that is my right and duty as his Goddess wife. What changed with WLM is that he is required to ask for my permission anytime he wants to do things with his friends. He plays sports and has weekly games and he must ask permission every week to participate. He knows that if he does not keep up with his chores or that I am not pleased with him for any reason that I will probably not grant him permission. Usually it is not a surprise to him when I say no. There have been a few instances over the years where I have punished him by forbidding him to participate in sports for several weeks. That has been a very effective punishment. He becomes highly motivated to please me in any way I want in order to get his privilege back.

He also knows and accepts that my priorities and his chores and responsibilities take priority over his time with friends. He will often turn down activities with his friends because he knows it would interfere with his obligations to me. His self-discipline in this area is a direct result of the WLM lifestyle and I believe is one of the distinguishing difference from a traditional marriage. As I noted previously, we had a good balance prior to WLM, but post-WLM, his obligation to please me always takes priority over his social life. The balance is still good but better swayed in my favor :) and he is happy with that. There are times where he will ask for special permission to participate in an activity that will delay his ability to do chores or tasks. If he is in good standing with me I will usually grant an exception but he knows to make these requests sparingly.

Thomas also asks for my approval when planning activities for us to do together with our mutual friends. Over time our closest friends have picked up on this and so now they usually just coordinate with me instead of him. I find it humorous that even one of his closest male friends will text me when making plans for his wife and I to go out with us. In recent years, it’s gotten to the point where I just tell Thomas what we are doing and he accepts it without question. I get a laugh when his friend talks to him about the plans for the night and Thomas has no idea that we made plans. On the other hand, when it comes to planning an activity for just the two of us or vacations, I enjoy having Thomas plan it. He is great at finding fun things to do and finding good deals on hotels and airfare. I allow him to come up with activities to do but before he books anything, he needs to run it by me for approval.

Similar to Joan, I do not put many restrictions on what my husband can do with friends. He has a few weekends where he goes away with the guys for camping, fishing, or football. It is healthy for him to have this social life and I enjoy the time to myself as well.

The flexibility that I allow may not be best for all relationships. I can be flexible because my husband has good judgement in what he chooses to do and he has a good group of friends. However, as many of you know or may be experiencing, there are a lot of guys that are not so good with their judgement. Sometimes a wife may need to exert stricter control over his social life because he is spending too much time out with friends. This can be done by simply forbidding activities or a more subtle way is to schedule days and times where he is expected to be home. Another approach is to pre-plan activities for the two of you so that he does not have the opportunity to accept invitations from friends.

I also think there are times where wife may need to forbid her husband from being with certain individuals or work toward him transitioning away from the friendship. I’ve always preached to my kids to choose their friends wisely, because the people you hang with are the ones who shape who you are. The same is true for adults. If you are spending time with individuals who have bad habits or get into trouble often, then it is likely that some of that is going to rub off on you. If the husband has bad friends, then the wife needs to redirect him away from those friends. It is not an easy or comfortable thing to do, but it is better in the long run. The nice thing with WLM, is that the wife has the proper authority and influence to make it happen.

I do not agree with the idea of eliminating his social life all together. To forbid him from having any friends is not healthy. For long-term mental health it is important to have friends and an active social life. In the WLM, his social life should be encouraged and supported but with approval and influence by the wife. Depending on your situation, stricter control may be needed but the end goal is that overtime the husband is trained and conditioned to put time with his wife and her needs in desires as a higher priority than his social life.

Please share your thoughts and experiences on this topic.

-Mz Kaylee