I don't like it when in a stretch to to be cute or make things more
like pop-culture people erode the very foundation of our society.
I remember after my father died my mother was talking about a woman
the Dad had worked with for many years. My mother referred to that
woman as my father's "work wife"
That just flew all over me! I thought about it for a minute and then
I said please don't call her that again.
For me the word "wife" has a very specific meaning. It's the woman a
man marries and spends his life with.
They watered it down to something a little bit less when they had to
accommodate common law marriages. Special-interest groups have made
it so people try to figure out which one in a relationship is husband
or wife.
I remember a neighbor's wife had gotten involved with camping with
another set of people in the neighborhood. The man's wife wasn't
really in to camping but the first woman really enjoyed it. So she
would go camping with them but she would go with the other man and
help set up camp. She jokingly referred to herself as his "camp
wife" I automatically thought that she was probably not faithful to
her husband. Sad.
Words mean things! If they don't mean things then we all have to
spend a lot more time explaining what we mean. And we have to
remember that words define the laws we count on to help protect our
rights.
Luckily my mother has not used the phrase "work wife" around me again.
And I don't hear it often, which means it may not be completely
infused in the pop-culture around us.
And please don't get me started on the phrase "dog mom" or "cat mom"...
