The Submissive Little Wife

So we moved into the apartment.

"You need to mark this day,"my husband said.
I was holding a mop, trying to figure out the way how to best use it.
"This is the first time you have a mop in your hand. right?" he said.
True. That was the first time ever that I tried to mop a floor. My life as a wife and mother in the U.S. started.

I wish that I could say that my art career started then. Unfortunately, it was not the case.

As a matter of fact, I had neither career nor any identity for the next twelve or thirteen years. Unless you consider being a wife and a mother was a career.

I was a stay-home ma - a new mother at that, consulting with Dr. Spock's book everyday.

All our friends were really S.C.'s friends. I had no relatives or friends in Texas.

My life evolved around my husband and our baby.

I was trying to adjust to my role as cook, maid, housekeeper, nursemaid, mother and wife.

We did not use disposable diapers.
The baby had colic often.
Whenever she cried, I would jump.
I don't think that I had enough sleep for the first year or so - may be even longer. 
I was a nervous mother.
I don't think that I read even one book those days.

We had part of our furniture shipped to TX from HK.
We did have a black and white television.
We did buy a washer and a dryer - that made life a bit easier.
We bought one car. S.C. used it to go to work. I did not have a driver's license yet - so I could not really go anywhere during the day. Besides, I did not know my way around Houston. 

I spent almost all my waking hours taking care of the apartment and the baby, mostly the baby.
I had no time to think about anything else.

No, I am not complaining. I am merely stating a fact.

In many ways, my husband was more of the old school than he would admit. He said to me that he did not want me to work and he would take care of me. He did not think that I could drive in Houston. Actually, at that time, Houston only had one Gulf freeway and was not such a big city as it is now. I actually thought it was Country to me. 
S.C. forgot that I had learned to drive in Hong Kong.

Anyway, to adjust my life style from the one I had in HK to the life style in Houston was a major change for me. And being a new mother and a housewife in the States with no domestic help was a big adjustment for me. 

But I was too tired to argue with him.

So, I became the ultimate submissive little wife.  

P.S. Did I mention that we only used disposable diapers when we traveled, which was not often. For everyday, it was the old-fashioned way, we (I should say I) used clothes diapers!