The Coupon Hottie of the Suburbs

My hottie husband has all the check-out girls at our grocery store smitten.

They giggle and bat their eyelashes when he pushes his cart down their candy-laden aisle. They fight over break time and who’s turn it is to bag his produce.

Bag his produces. I’m not kidding. Barf.

They even gossip about his ‘spendy’ wife and how his family would be broke if she did the shopping.

Yes, you read that right. The women at my local Ralph’s actually gossip about me and I caught them red-handed.

I was innocently picking up a few things for dinner when I overheard two check-out girls and a male customer-

Oh, yeah…my wife usually does the shopping and I don’t know where anything is around here-says the man wearing a suit and tie.

We have a guy that does the whole families’ shopping! He comes in every Sunday with his coupons and his list- says the brunette ringing up the man while she pops and cracks her gum

We call him the coupon hottie – says the college aged bagger with a giggle

He says he can’t let his wife do the shopping or they would be broke- says the brunette who is now about to get an earful

Enter the wife.

Does he have dark short hair? Glasses? Always brings his canvas bags?

Yes! That’s him! You’ve seen him before?

Every day. I’m the wife who would make the family broke if I did this more often

Silence.

More silence and glances back and forth.

Continued silence and a very nervous check-out girl very quickly scanning my items while trying not to make eye contact with me.

You see this isn’t the first time I’ve heard the Ralph’s groupies fawn over my husband. I had gone in once before with our canvas bags and the bagger chick actually recognized our SXSW bag and asked if my husband was the ‘Coupon Hottie.’

After she explained how girls fight over who’s turn it is to ring him up, she giggled and offered to tell me even more about what they say about my spouse.

As if hearing he had a nickname wasn’t enough.

I declined with a smile and told her maybe another time. As fun as it would be to tease my man when I got home, I had heard enough to prop up his ego for a lifetime.

I will be the first to admit I married a hunka hunka man, and I will also admit how very lucky I am to have a husband who does the grocery shopping, laundry, etc. But what irked me most about my encounters with his groupies were their secondary remarks as they drooled-

My husband doesn’t lift a finger around the house, are you kidding me? He would never shop for the whole family.

My husband doesn’t even know where the tomatoes are let alone how to buy a pork roast.

My husband hasn’t ever seen a coupon let alone used one.

My husband …. My husband…

…you get the idea.

For as many women as I know who talk a good game about equality and gender roles, there sure seems to be a whole mess of you who married men stuck in the 50’s.

I realize it wasn’t just Aaron’s good looks that had these women in a tizzy, it was the coupons, the list, and his ability to live up to the idea of equality every Sunday at register seven. Often times he brings the kids, further showing them what a great, hands-on Dad he is…and that he isn’t the type of guy to dump his kids on a babysitter or on Mom when he’s forced to do the shopping or some other household duty.

Granted my husband has taken on more since I have been ill, the majority of these errands and chores were done by him from the start. We both work. We both take care of the kids. We actually do share the household tasks. For real. He probably does way more dishes than I ever do, cooks more dinners, and definitely does more loads of laundry.

And this is just one example of why I married him…because he didn’t just talk the talk, he walked it by supporting his strong, career wife by making her a mother and changing just as many diapers, folding just as many shirts, and emptying the dishwasher just as many times.

He also does it without laying guilt on me. He sees it as his responsibility just as much as mine. It’s his job to raise the kids, scrubs the pots and pans, and go to work to bring home a paycheck. And since I have been sick, he’s pretty much turned into a superhero, doing all the everyday tasks as well as taking the kids to riding lessons, birthday parties, and everything in between.

Yes ladies, he’s my coupon hottie, spending his Sunday clipping the newspaper and buying extra paper towels when they are on sale and knowing exactly which Ben & Jerry’s to bring home to his wife.

But I think I might do the grocery shopping around here more often…if only to keep the mob of check-out girls in line. 😉