More Than One Wife? Kill Me Now.

2 July 2008

It’s not that I don’t love women, but one is enough for me.

At the moment the wife is working in Sydney and I have the house to myself (well, myself and the dog), and when she returns for a weekend visit, the place goes into turmoil. Any little nothing that I have inadvertedly moved during her time away is spotted and put back exactly as SHE wants it to be. Every plant is inspected and I am blamed for every curled leaf. I can no longer go to bed early (remember: I do a Breakfast show) because if I trot off to the bedroom before 9pm this is considered to be proof that I don’t love her so much anymore. As if it’s compulsory that I stay up to watch a DVD of Little Women, a movie she cries in and I try not to sleep through.

Yes, one of her, adorable as she is, is enough.

So I can only think it bizarre when men want to take more than one wife. This has been one of the big issues of the last week, with a Muslim group advocating the legalisation of polygamy here in Australia. We’ve spoken to some guests about this over the last few days, and it’s surprised both Addy and myself that some of these regular Breakfast Club friends have been living in poylgamous relationships for some years. They, women, seem pretty happy about it, although they say the rules have to be set at the beginning.

Now some men might see this as alluring. Your own private harem. But we know that it doesn’t work out like that. We’re dealing with people here folks. To make a multiple marriage work would take a lot of effort. Polygamy is standard pratice in some cultures, and they make it work based on respect and co-operation.

As for me. Noooeeoowwww…

- Phil