‘I fought buying a king-sized bed for years. It was for older couples who secretly hate each other but are sticking it out until the kids leave for college.’: Man learns important lesson about his marriage

“I fought buying a king-sized bed for years, mostly because it seemed like a luxury we couldn’t afford (which was true) but also because it felt like something for older couples who secretly hate each other but are sticking it out until the kids leave for college.

Mel was pretty insistent, however, saying that she couldn’t sleep that close to me, and the whole time I was like ‘I sleep just fine. What’s the problem?’ Then she’d look at me with the same cold dead eyes Anton Chigurh gave his victims in No Country For Old Men.

So, after 14 years of marriage, I ended up dragging my feet around the furniture store looking to upgrade our bedroom set, which was actually a mismatch of particleboard and Rubbermaid, with a queen mattress on a bed frame minus the headboard (we were poor for soooo long).

After having a king size for close to a year, I’m here to admit that it was the best decision of my marriage. I no longer wake up with bruises on my shins from Mel kicking me. There’s no longer turf war over the blankets because they are actually big enough. I don’t wake to her hair in my mouth anymore (sounds scandalous but we keep it clean here) and I cannot recall the last time she shoved my face away in the night because I was mouth breathing into her mouth as I slept.

I don’t wake her when I leave for work early, and although our 4-year-old sleeps horizontally like an A-hole, our new bed is somehow big enough to accommodate her unwillingness to conform to a normal sleeping position. And most importantly I don’t wake up to her sitting up in bed and staring at me with serial killer eyes because of that twitch thing I sometimes do in the night.

And sure, I feel a little further away from Mel in the night, but overall buying a king bed was the best thing we did for our marriage, and looking back, it probably saved my life. Five stars. I highly recommend.”

This story was written by Clint Edwards from No Idea What I’m Doing: A Daddy Blog and author of Silence is a Scary Sound: And Other Stories on Living Through the Terrible Twos and Threes.  His new book can be found here. Follow Clint on Instagram here. Do you have a similar experience? We’d like to hear your important journey. Submit your own story here. Be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTubefor our best videos.

Read more from Clint here:

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