VIDEO: Happy wife, happy life

You don’t need to speak German to figure out what this fun music video is saying, and it’s really about emotional generosity.

I like this concept: Happy wife, happy life.

Social science (for whatever that’s worth) supports it:

When a woman is happily married, her husband’s overall life satisfaction gets a boost, regardless of how he feels about their union, according to a new Rutgers University study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

The researchers analyzed the marital quality and general well-being of 394 couples who’d been married, on average, for 39 years. (To be included, both spouses had to be at least 50 years old, and one at least 60.) Although overall life satisfaction didn’t significantly differ by gender, the men did tend to report slightly higher marital happiness than their wives did.

And an unhappy wife spelled serious trouble: When the women didn’t report wedded bliss, their husbands’ overall life contentment tended to take a hit.

To me, the conclusion makes perfect sense. Women tend to be the homemakers, so their mood will dominate the one place in which you’re supposed to be safe from the trials and tribulations of the rest of the world. This is even truer when there are children. An unhappy woman robs everyone of their sanctuary.

Having said that, as a husband, you are not obligated to become a milquetoast slave constantly yielding to an angry, irrational, demanding woman. As I understand it, a marriage based on emotional generosity, one in which the partners willingly give of themselves to each other (no one-way streets here), makes for the happiest home.

And in the spirit of that idea, here’s a very cute video on the subject. You don’t need to speak German to understand it, but after the video, I’ve included Google’s translation of the original lyrics:

You can see us in front of the altar
I want to try it until my seventh year
You want the villa in the Schlossallée
I think my 100 hectares are the s***.

I’m bargain hunting for Chanel
You prefer to drive fast in the Audi
I like my old Buffalos
You feel good in your lederhosen

All the opposites are nothing to frustrate me
because I got it early

Happy wife, happy wife – happy life, happy life
Do you have a happy wife?
Do you have a happy life?

Happy wife, happy wife – happy life, happy life
Do you have a happy wife?
Do you have a happy life?

You want to take a dance class with me
You’d rather see Ronaldo
Where my workshop used to be
Is now a closet – accessible

You love your designer bags
You’d rather stick with the beer bottle
And if you look at suburban women again
Do you think,”Unfortunately, no naked women”

Happy wife, happy wife – happy life, happy life
Do you have a happy wife?
Do you have a happy life?

Happy wife, happy wife – happy life, happy life
Do you have a happy wife?
Do you have a happy life?

Hey baby, if you’re fine, I’ll be fine too
And if I’m fine, then you are fine too
I have a dream – this country needs more “happy wifes”
Because then there are also more “happy lifes”

Happy wife, happy wife – happy life, happy life
Do you have a happy wife?
Do you have a happy life?

Happy wife, happy wife – happy life, happy life
Do you have a happy wife?
Do you have a happy life?

And for fun, you might like to check out Highway to Hell as you’ve never seen it before.

Image: The image is a painting by George Hayter (public domain) celebrating the 1840 wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was an extraordinarily happy wife, adoring everything about her husband. It’s an open question whether he was happy, or whether this stodgy, duty-bound German, who never felt at home in England, was capable of happiness.