In the midst of a hot and sweaty summer, when you don’t even want to heat up the house to cook dinner, you don’t need Romance Awareness Month to rear its horny head and steam up your sheets even more. Yes, you might have the urge to beat that lecherous month back with a stick screaming “Wait until winter!” as your “switties” (those are sweaty titties to the uninformed) start to chafe and the dry tongue sticking to the roof of your mouth reminds you that yes, you are in fact dehydrated.
But wait! You can fully embrace the month of romance without dying of heat exhaustion. For real!
See, most people equate romance with some Bumpin’ and Grindin’. While romance MAY lead to a sticky roll in the bedclothes – that’s not what romance is. Romance will always disappoint you if you feel like it should look like “The Notebook” or, worse yet, “50 Shades of Grey”. That’s not real life, hun. Nobody ACTUALLY has that, so you shouldn’t feel bad that you don’t either. Romance Awareness Month, at least to me, encourages us to take a deeper look at romance and move beyond the flowers and chocolates to focus on the real romance that keeps long-term relationships alive.
While I have my own recipe for romantic success, like date nights and letting him sleep in on Sundays – you probably have your own as well. If, however, you are sitting on your coach crying softly to yourself that you have not married Ryan Gosling – here’s a few examples of what romance looks like in the real, Real World. All of these have been scraped from the internet, but they will certainly help you to better understand, and maybe achieve, the kind of romance that is based in reality and not a pie in the sky.
“When I had to leave the house at 4am to get to the hospital in time for work, he would wake up, make me coffee and then go back to sleep. Completely steadfast.” – CupOfJo
“Being romantic means showing her that even though you know she is capable of taking care of herself, you want to take care of her in your own ways — and you want to let her take care of you right back.” YourTango
“I find the little things my husband does daily to be the most romantic…tucking me into bed, doing the dishes, making the bed, a foot rub after walking home in high heels, picking up something I forgot at the grocery store, etc. It just reminds me that, man, I totally lucked out and married up” Pearl
“Puts fuzzy socks on my feet when I’m cold without being asked” CafeMom.
“When my husband went out of his way to help me out on a morning that he wouldn’t be physically present, he showed that he respected the work I do for our family. When he made that simple sandwich and left it on the counter, he showed that he’d been thinking of me even while preparing for work. I felt known and seen and, yes, romanced.” IBelieveInLove
As you can see, it’s the small, consistent gestures that truly mean so much. Any dude with a travel agent can plan a weekend away. A guy that gets up at 4am to make a cup of coffee makes me think he needs to invest in a programmable Keurig but ALSO …awwwww! That’s the stuff ladies.
So, as Romance Awareness Month comes to a close, look at what your husband does that validates you as a person. What shows he cares. What he doesn’t do for anyone else. THAT is romance. Maybe not the kind of romance that they write “50 Shades of Grey” about but the kind that gets you to a 50th anniversary. I’ll take that over whips and chains any day!
Tell me, what is REAL ROMANCE to you and your honey? Join me over on Facebook and LMK!
