I had always believed that husband wives normally behave in typical fashion when out of have dinner, but sitting in a crowded restaurant, I realized there is a considerable difference in behavior from which you can predict the length of marriage.
This is a famous restaurant in the city where people normally come with their families. Married couples form a sizeable population of this joint. Observation of these couples on one busy Saturday night revealed that not only do married couples tend to behave differently but this difference is closely connected with length of marriage.
Newly weds: this is by far the most attractive couple. Wife looks happiest and husband has a dreamy look on his face. They are still in honeymoon phase. Wife is constantly smiling and husband is listening intently to every word she utters. This may differ for people with bad start in marriage. But for most newly weds, this holds true. Wife is also usually more dressed up than other wives around. She is better dressed, looks more satisfied and certainly happier.
In this stage, wives seem to have the upper hand. They understand their worth since husbands are paying extra attention and everything seems hunky dory. The husband would also feed the wife now and then and wife would return the favor. Interesting in this stage of marriage, since the whole concept of marriage is new, you would actually catch the husband looking at pretty faces every now and then. Even if he finds his wife most interesting, there is more than occasional moments when he would lock eyes with one or two females sitting at another table or entering the restaurant. Why this happens is beyond me but I feel that the husband still hasn’t come to terms with his married status.
Normal married couple with 4-10 years of marriage: this is the typical married couple which is neither too young nor too old. Normally wives would be wearing anything they got their hands on. During my observation, I noticed that neither the wife nor the husband was the center of attention. For these couples, the world revolved around the children. “What do they want to eat”, “have they finished their meals”, “do they want to go to play area”.
These seem to be the main concerns. The husbands are also shabbily dressed. They are busy with their food or how the kids are doing but seem to pay little attention to whether the wife is eating or not. This man seems too caught up in marriage to actually notice other girls but once or twice he would take a look. But this look is visibly different from that of a newly wed. It has a longing as if the husband knows that no woman in his right mind would pay him any attention now because he has lost his appeal.
The old couples: this was the most interesting group to watch. Older couples with more than 25 years together have a distinct behavior pattern. Men seem heavily dependent on their wives. Women hold their spectacles for them, put food on their plates or read out the menu to them. Men look much weaker than women and see their wives as a pillar of their strength. This is where man actually behaves like a child and wife is offering support.
Years of togetherness is written on their faces. Women will instruct the man on what to eat and what to avoid. Here wife is the pillar and for the man, other women simply cease to exist. This woman he is with seems to be everything to him. She treats him like a child but the husband needs it. The woman on the other hand looks much stronger and doesn’t seem to be so dependent on the husband.
I found that by grouping the couples according to their behavior, you could predict the length of their marriage.