Dear Daughter, You Know Him As A Doting Father But For Me He’s A Controlling Husband!

A mother who has seen her daughter being brought up by a protective father, tells her from self-experience about the realities of an Indian marriage that await her.

Dear Daddy’s Darling,

No, I should have called you Daddy’s Princess, isn’t it? Give me five minutes of your time. I know whichever way I put this bit, it is not going to be up to your liking. Well, even if I fail, I would have made the effort.

Mama’s boy is a worldwide phenomenon. But you – Daddy’s girl – are quite a recent one, in our society at least, where the role played by Daddies in child rearing amounted to that of an extra. But no more so. With only one or two offspring, the mother working and the joint family disintegrating – Daddies are now increasingly taking center stage. So if your Dad has faced parenting problems, you, my girl, have provided him the undoubted joy of parenting.

I am not going into Oedipal complex and Electra complex – they are too universal, too archetypal for my purpose. Let us put it this way. Just as an Indian mother got to explore masculinity with a stamp of ‘MINE’ through her son, the Indian father is now getting the chance to explore and mould femininity through his daughter – the stamp of ‘MINE’ not forgotten.

So Daddy took you under his wings. Whenever I tried to teach you the womanly things like doing household chores, being uncomplaining, etc., he was there to back you up in your rebellion. Your pert arguments amused him. He thought his daughter was original and bright. Obviously, he has no experience of a woman’s life and does not know that a woman’s life begins much later when all this originality and brightness – even high academic and professional achieve­ments – are of little value.

As Daddy was your role model, you have imbibed some of his masculine characteristics, which I fear, will land you in a problem the moment your husband starts reading out his very masculine expectation from your role as a wife. Of course, you have got somebody to run to, a safe haven, the moment the going gets rough, which will tempt you all the more to escape.

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The image of you two walking together, your little fingers tucked trustingly in his protective hand still brings a lump to my throat. Even today your Dear Daddy is ever ready to devote his life to your well-being, to pamper you, to cosset you but he cannot fill the void which a husband leaves. Follow common sense. Don’t get caught in wordy traps like feminism and traditionalism. Think carefully and then choose to complain about your husband to your father. Be your own High Court and Supreme Court.

Will you listen to me impartially if to substantiate my point, I try to show you your Dad as a husband to me? And don’t you dare to hear the twang of the western concept of sexual jealousies between mothers and daughters into what I am saying. (I was happy for you; you had a doting father, whom I never had.) I am simply trying to show you your model role, that is, the role carved for our gender by our very patriarchal culture.

Your father as a husband had expected me to put him first before everything – my career, my dreams, and my desires. He expected me to be a good daughter-in-law to his parents, to look after his siblings, to run the house; my individuality was a foreign notion to him then (still is) though yours isn’t. My right to work was unheard of. You see there was plenty at home to occupy me. I was simply expected to toe the line. He wasn’t even aware that a wife has certain rights.

In your case he is guarding his own – you. Look at it objectively. In the beginning of our marriage too he was guarding his own, that is, his self-interest. That, my dear, is the masculine principle – self-interest.

Believe me, I am all for the new woman. But the fact is that the absolutely liberal, emancipated man you chose after such guided considerations – who no doubt has been fed on Germaine Greer’s and Meryl Streep’s views – the ‘woman’ to him so far is an abstract concept. After marriage, he would realize that he would like the concrete woman, the woman in his life – his wife – to play a similar role or at least a some­what similar role to what his mother and aunts have been playing.

Marriage is an equal partnership for you, okay? But let me add from experience that it is more equal for the husband. Parents’ love is unconditional but the same cannot be said about the in-laws’, husband’s love. And marriage is a package deal in which husband’s family is always included. Keep your sense of humor intact.

You are someone special for your Daddy but for your husband and his family you are an ordi­nary run-of-the-mill wife like thou­sands of other young women who have entered into marriage. You have to shed the Princess Syndrome. Daddy’s instinct will always be to shield you from pain but Beta, growth is painful. You don’t need a savior to make it all better. Create your own kingdom yourself. No more repetition of your favorite lines when things don’t go your way ‘Leave me alone. Go away’ because unlike us your husband might take you on your word. Elasticity is a much-wanted virtue in marriage.

Now maybe the faint echoes of my voice telling you to learn household chores ring in your ears because there is no Daddy to hide behind. So far like a flower you were in your Daddy’s garden, like a pearl you were inside the safe, secure mother (father!) of pearl. Now everything is changed. Your father is planning to send a servant to your home to help you. Think carefully before saying yes. This helping gesture can be construed as interference by other members of your family.

All the assertiveness, which you learnt at Daddy’s knee, will be of no use because your husband has his own idea of a perfect wife. And a perfect wife in the mascu­line mind is the one who is willing to be led not lead. So initially at least be led, be tactful. We are there when you need us, but decide wisely when you need us. Value this option of a good life. We will always support you but supporting does not mean agreeing with you.

One day when you will have a daughter, you will have the fun of watching this process in action replay but with different characters and experience the helplessness, which only a mother can feel. I want you to be happily married, not only married. So shed your irrelevant, superfluous expectations from day to day living, tighten your belt and get going. As a responsible adult take your own decisions and have the gumption to stand by them. You want marriage – you should have it – a long successful one. Remember our attitudes build our present, our memories, and our histories.

With lots of love,

Your Mom.

Image source: shutterstock

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