Lost to the Patriarchy

I thought for sure my mother was safe.  After almost 25 years of being divorced and a zillion years of living with K and no desire at all to bow to the patriarchy and re-marry, she went and did it.  She snuck off and married K yesterday.

I should have known this was going to happen.  For the last six months she’s been making noises about marriage.  And everytime she made those noises I reminded her of the patriarchy.  I reminded her that if her granddaughters called and said "We’re thinking about getting married for health insurance…" she’d have said "NO! Don’t do it! Bad reason!" 

Bah.

She says she called last week and told me they had decided to do it.  She most certainly did not call me last week and tell me they had decided to do it.  I’d have taken down the pink flamingo flag in front and hung a black mourning flag up instead.  She did call and discuss the pros and cons of marriage with me.  But she did not specifically say "We have decided to tie the knot."

HMPH.  She probably confused me with my damn sister – again.

She also did not tell my brother.  But that is because my damn sister told her that he was off on a cruise.  Not that Mikey would have cared, he is part of the patriarchy after all and he bowed to it himself a few years ago after swearing for all of his adult life that he wasn’t going to get married.

Grrr.  What is it with my siblings who swear they are never going to do this or that and then turn around and do it.  Oh wait, they are their mother’s children – since she always SWORE she would never get married again.

Damn patriarchy.  Damn American healthcare system that encourages marriage in order to solve health insurance coverage issues.