Helicopter Wife: Caring and Organised – Or Interfering Harpy?

The other day I found myself writing my husband’s doctor’s appointment in the calendar for him. He’ll just forget, I thought. Later on that day, he asked me to write a letter for him to send to his Grandmother (she doesn’t like these new-fangled email thingys). Well, he makes such a fuss about it that I may as well do it myself, I thought. And then the alarm bells sounded. Why was I organising his life for him? Was I becoming the dreaded Helicopter Wife?

Girls, it’s easy to fall into the trap when you have a husband like mine, and I think a lot of husbands are like mine. Ask him to do anything, and he’ll do it in a half-arsed fashion, so you end up doing it yourself. Ask him to remember anything, and he’ll just forget, so you have to write it down for him. Next thing you know you’re making him a CV and sending it to several prospective employers, without even telling him, and you have officially become a Helicopter Wife.

I think some men quite like having helicopter wives. Mine certainly does. Sometimes I wonder how he did anything before he met me. It makes me wonder if he fakes his incompetence because he knows I’ll do everything if he does it wrong. Like the time he suspiciously washed the whites with one shocking pink towel. Of course I now do all the washing.

No more! I’m not falling for the trap. I will not be the Hyacinth Bucket to his poor, downtrodden Richard! Helicopter wives the world over, think about it: is it really because you’re better at doing everything, or was it just his cunning plan to let you think that?