How to Be a Submissive Wife

Chapter One – A New Beginning

“Do you find yourself,
tired, irritable and dissatisfied with your husband?  Have you considered
that it may be your fault?”
 
Excerpt from
How to Be a Submissive
Wife by Penelope Wiggins

             
Sitting up in bed next to her sleeping husband, Sarah sat and looked at the
e-reader as she read the first line of
How
to Be a Submissive Wife
.  Was it
possible that much of the trouble with her marriage may be her fault?  She
snorted and shook her head.  No, she’d realized quite a few years ago that
she’d picked the wrong man.  It soon became apparent after they started
having kids.   While she attempted to balance her parenting duties,
household duties, part-time job and self-care, Sarah saw Joe going to work
every day, taking naps as needed on the weekend, going to the gym to work out
and generally taking care of himself while his wife was drowning.  
In a frantic attempt to make sure that everything got done in their household,
Sarah took on more and more responsibilities and became more and more angry and
disillusioned about their marriage.   Joe continued doing what he was
doing and seemed to emotionally withdraw as she got angrier and angrier.

             
Now Sarah and Joe rarely talked. 
They discussed the children but rarely spent any other time together. 
They never had date nights and the amount of sex they had in a year could be
counted on the fingers of one hand.  Sarah had bought the marriage
improvement manual in a last ditch attempt to save her
marriage.     She’d heard of a ‘Submissive Marriage’ on
television and on the internet and wanted to further explore this
option.   This book seemed to best represent her expectations of
marriage…a dominant man who sets the tone for his family and a wife who works
as an active supporting partner for her husband.  The best part of the
book for her was that the husband became the sexually dominant partner in the
marriage.   Sarah had always enjoyed the stories of dominant men who
took what they want, when they wanted.  Joe had become a man who seemed
afraid to ask his wife for sex much less demand it when he wanted it. 

             
The introduction to the book made it
clear that this was a do-it-yourself manual in which the author expected the
reader to follow its instructions one week per chapter with no skipping
ahead.   Sarah shrugged her shoulders and read the rest of the first
chapter.  Some of the questions raised by this chapter really struck a
chord with her. 

“Are you frequently
resentful of your husband?”

“Do you often tell your
husband what to do?”

“Do you complain about your
husband to your friends?”

“Do you often feel over
worked and underappreciated?”

“Do you daydream about your
perfect man?”

Sarah answered, “Yes” in her
mind to all of the questions.  The last one gave her pause.  Before
she’d quit her job as a journalist at the local newspaper, she’d often
daydreamed about how life would have been different for her if she’d married a
man like her boss, Sam Roberts.   Her secret crush on him had kept
her from really working on her marriage with Joe.  On some level, she’d
thought that at some point the two of them would get together since they worked
together so well.  In recent years, she realized that such a union would
be devastating to her and Sam’s kids.  She’d also come to the conclusion
that she really had no idea what sort of husband Sam was to his wife,
Laura.  She certainly didn’t seem ecstatic, like she was married to the
perfect man! 

             
Sarah sighed and lowered the book. 
So far, it certainly described how she felt.  She still didn’t understand
how all of this was her fault.  She read on,

“
In your attempts to control everything, you’ve
taken your husband’s role as head of the household away from him.  In
essence, you’ve emasculated him.  This book is a step by step guide on how
to restore him to his rightful place and take the burden off of you.  The
first thing I’d like you to do is really look at your husband as a
person.  Is there any legitimate reason why you shouldn’t submit to
him?  Is he addicted to drugs or alcohol?  Does he abuse you (other
than consensual corporal punishment)?  Has he cheated on you multiple
times?   If you answer
Yes
to any of these
questions, you should probably seek to separate yourself from him.

Sarah
was relieved to say a resounding No to all of the
questions.  She returned to the book.

“On the flip side, is your
husband a good provider?  Is he a good father? Do you remember ever having
an intimate, loving relationship with him?”

Sarah had to admit that Joe
made good money in his job as a VP at a local bank.  He also was very good
at showing up at all of the kids’ events, even when he was busy at work. 
As far as having an intimate relationship with him, the first few years of their
relationship, they just couldn’t get enough of each other.   They’d
even been a little kinky, engaging in sex in some unusual places and indulging
in erotic spanking on occasion!  Those days were long gone since the
advent of the children.   She sighed and dropped the book
to her lap.  She would love to get that sexual
excitement back into their marriage. She started reading again.

“So, after answering the
above questions, I imagine that you are coming to the conclusion that you are
pretty lucky in your choice of husband.  You probably have friends and
family members whose husbands have abused them, cheated on them, left them for
other women, squandered
all of their
money, etc.   Your husband hasn’t done any of these things so why are
you such a bitch to him?”

She looked up and bit her
lip.  Good question, why was she such a bitch to Joe?  An image of
how he seemed to cringe when she started telling him what needed to be done
around the house came into her mind.  He could hardly stand to be around
her.  What had she done?  Tears started to well in her eyes. 
She needed to make a change.

Chapter Two – Respect

“Your assignment for your
first week is fairly simple.  Don’t tell your husband what to do. 
This means don’t make helpful suggestions, don’t give him a ‘to do’ list. 
Don’t criticize what he does do.  If he asks you for guidance say,
‘Whatever you decide is fine
Dear
.  I trust your
judgment.’
Defer to him as much as possible. 
Remember, in your mind he is now the head of the household and you are his
supportive helper.   You will be amazed how making this simple
paradigm shift will clear your mind and give you peace.” 
Excerpt from
How
to Be a Submissive Wife by Penelope Wiggins

             
The next morning was a Monday. 
Sarah ran around helping her three children get ready for school.  Fifteen
year old Kate sat at the kitchen table, eating the breakfast she’d prepared for
herself of a bagel with cream cheese.  Sarah served up scrambled eggs and
toast to her twelve year old son Bo and her ten year old son Nick.  As Joe
walked into the kitchen, adjusting his tie and buttoning his cuffs, Sarah ran
an appraising eye over his form.  Built like a wrestler, he was close to
six feet tall with wide muscular shoulders and arms.   His short
cropped black hair sported distinguished grey at the temples.  His dark
brown eyes had flecks of gold and green.   Sarah remembered how they
used to sparkle when he looked at her.  Now he glanced at her impersonally
as he walked to get himself some coffee.  Sarah spoke to him, “You sit
Dear
.  I’ll get your coffee.”  Giving her a
quizzical glance, Joe shrugged his shoulders and sat at the table.  
“Here you go Honey. 
Would you like some eggs and
toast?”  “
Uh, sure…”  He seemed confused at her willingness to
serve him and the endearments.  Sarah had informed him years ago that he
was old enough to feed himself breakfast and had left him to his own devices
since making this pronouncement.   Sarah sat the food in front of him
and inquired, “Is there anything else you would like?  I could cut up some
fruit.”  “Uh, no, this is fine.”  He looked at her like she had lost
her mind.  What was up?   Sarah just smiled at him and flitted
over to the sink and started rinsing off the kids’ soiled plates.  
“Boys, it is time to go wait for the bus.  Kate, Daddy needs you to be
ready so he can drop you off at school.”   Blonde haired green-eyed
Kate stood up with a sigh and stomped to the mudroom to pick up her backpack
and coat.  Sarah marveled at how much Kate looked like her when she was
young.  Admiring Kate’s willowy figure, Sarah looked down at her own dumpy
body wrapped in a non-descript fluffy robe.  Turning forty hadn’t been
good for her body.  She was well on her way to the dreaded middle age
spread.   Joe had
faired
much better even
though he was in his mid forties.  He worked out at least three nights a
week, sometimes more often.  Sarah suspected that part of the reason he
worked out was to get away from her.  Tears gathered in her eyes as she
turned back to the sink.   Kate sauntered back into the
kitchen.  “Mom, can I spend the night at Jamie’s house this Friday?” 
Sarah turned to look at her.  “I don’t know Honey.  What do you think
Joe?”  Interrupted in lifting his coffee cup to his mouth, Joe wrinkled
his brow.  “I don’t know Kate.  Will you be able to play soccer on
Saturday morning if you spend the night at Jamie’s house?  You girls like
to stay up late.”   Kate looked at her mom, “Please Mom…I really want
to go.”  Sarah replied, “It sounds like your father is concerned that you
won’t be rested enough for your game on Saturday so I think you girls should
decide on another night.”  After having deferred to Joe, Sarah turned and
started putting the rinsed dishes in the dishwasher.  She could feel Joe
looking at her speculatively.  Eventually, he drained his coffee cup and
brought it up to her at the sink.  “Thanks for the coffee and breakfast
Sarah.  I really appreciate it.  See you tonight.”  After
placing the cup in the sink, he strolled out to the mudroom, picking up his
briefcase and grabbing his suit coat.  “Kate, it is time to go.”

             
Sarah collapsed against the sink. 
That wasn’t so difficult!   It was actually a relief to have Joe make
some of the decisions.  Hurriedly finishing up her morning clean up
chores, Sarah ran to shower.  Time to work!  Seeing her e-reader on
the table in her bedroom, she picked it up and started reading.  A few
hours passed before she re-emerged from the erotic novel she’d been
devouring.  Looking at the bed side clock she bolted up alarmed.  She
needed to shower and do some work before the children got home!  Hurriedly
undressing, she looked at herself naked in the full length mirror on the wall
of the bedroom.  She saw a well padded curvaceous middle aged woman with
shoulder length curly dyed blonde hair and blue-green eyes.  She had
stretch marks on her abdomen from her three pregnancies and a few lines around
her eyes.   She was saved from looking too fat by her small waist
which set off her large
pillowy
breasts and rounded
thighs and butt.   Turning around, she frowned at the lumps and bumps
she saw.   She wished that she had the time to work out and eat right
more.  It seemed like the days just flew.  Hurrying to the master
bath, she showered and got dressed in a velour track suit and tennis shoes.  
Walking to her office, she turned on the computer and looked at the
screen.   Since resigning from the paper, she’d worked as a free
lance journalist, submitting articles as she finished them. 
Unfortunately, she wasn’t as efficient as she thought she’d be working at
home.  She also really wanted to start writing a novel, but just didn’t
seem to have the time.   Sighing, she set to work on her
article.  The deadline was the end of the week. 

             
After what seemed like a few minutes but
was actually a few hours, Sarah heard the boys coming home from school. 
She sighed and pushed back from the computer.  Time to get back into mommy
mode!  After feeding the boys a snack and overseeing homework, she drove
them to their after school activities, soccer for Nick and karate for
Bo.   On the way home that evening, she realized that she hadn’t
planned dinner!  Oh well, pizza again….She dialed the pizza place as she
headed towards home. While walking into the kitchen with two pizza boxes Sarah
yelled, “Dinner is here!”   Pulling out plates from the cupboard, she
stacked them next to the open boxes.  Joe sauntered in drying his hair
with a towel.  He must have worked out after coming home from the
office. 
“Pizza again?”
  “Yeah, I totally
ran out of time to plan dinner.”  He looked at her for a moment with
skeptical hazel eyes.  She hurried to make amends, “I promise that I will
plan things better tomorrow…okay?”  She smiled at him
apologetically.  In the past she would have blown up at him and told him
that she just didn’t have time and that if he wanted a home cooked meal, maybe
he should have cooked it!   He didn’t say anything else, just helped
himself to the pizza and went to the living room to eat and watch TV with the
kids.  Kate breezed into the kitchen, “Hi Mom…I ate at Jenny’s.  I’m
going to go to my room and do homework.”  Giving her a quick hug, Sarah
said, “Okay Sweetie.  Don’t stay up too late.”