The best medicine

My husband and I do not like to argue. We do disagree and discuss, but no yelling, fuming, mud-slinging arguments. It's just not our style. We try not to go to bed angry at one another, even if that means getting little sleep. So far, this has been a simple task. The reason this is so easy for us is that he has two essential skills: 1)he does not get angry easily and 2)he can make me laugh when I am angry. 

With this in mind, we were talking the other day about the various ways that spouses settle disagreements. In this conversation, he reminded me that no matter how upset I am with him, he knows that he can make me laugh and clear the air. So, I told him that I would do like American women, and make my husband sleep on the couch. A little confused, he asked where the wife sleeps.

"In the bed."

"In their bed?"

"Yes."

"And the husband sleeps on the couch?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"The wife kicks the husband out of their bedroom, and he has to sleep on the couch in the living room."

Silence. Then laughter.

"If you told me I couldn't sleep in our bed, I would just go to the children's bedroom."

Chuckle. I tried to imagine him willingly leaving our bedroom like the men on TV, and I knew it was almost impossible. "You'd sleep in there?" 

"No. Play. Play with the baby. Make noise. Play games. Have a lot of fun. We would be so loud you would beg me to stop."

All I could do was laugh.