Switching Your Side Of The Bed

Mr. Organized and I are pretty predictable and like routine. We have a good list of “Go To” meals in our repertoire and once a week or so we throw all caution to the wind and have take out for dinner. We work away each evening on our laptops side by side on the couch organizing things for both home and work. And we have a standard roster of shows we watch together on our PVR while we work.

Honestly, we don’t really "mix it up" too much. Some might say that our relationship is boooring. We prefer to think of it as comfy. We just know what we like – each other!

But that being said, we won’t deny that maybe we are in a bit of a rut. So when the folks at Cottonelle suggested that a simple switch could make a difference and maybe spice things up in our relationship I figured we should give it a shot. And why not go to the source.

What is going on in that bedroom of ours? How could we switch things up in there? What do we do the same, night in and night out?

So I suggested to Mr. Org that we trade sides of the bed. First came the stunned blank look and then the resounding “NO WAY.” You see, it’s not just that we’re used to our sides of the bed. There are a couple other factors involved...

#1 The Girlfriend
My husband has a special friend that helps him get to sleep at night. His radio. Every night he listens to AM talk radio, specifically a crazy call-in show called Coast to Coast. He’s like Pavlov’s dog with this show. He hears the theme song and starts to fall asleep. He is so addicted that when we go places without a radio by the bed he has a little hand-cranked radio he brings with him.

But in our room, the radio sits on his nightstand. Well it starts out on his nightstand and it migrates into the bed, snuggled right in beside him. Which is why I have dubbed it "The Girlfriend".

#2 The Too Easy Access
I sleep on the side of the bed that is right by the door. The spot that is directly in the line of fire from the Kid’s room. It is not uncommon for me to hear "thump, thump, thump, thump" down the hall in the middle of the night and then "Mummy! Come sleep in my bed." Which leads to the rest of the night being kicked and poked by a 4 year old.

So his comfortablity with his side, the idea of his radio being so far away and the possibility of being dragged away to the Kid’s bed all contributed to my husband being resistant to the idea. But I suggested we just do it for a night or two and we decided to give it a try.

What Happened
Well, instead of facing out of the bed to opposite directions, we found ourselves facing in towards each other more often than we normally do in any given night. Somehow, the radio ended up in the middle of the bed instead of out to one side so we could share it. (I like Coast to Coast too!) And luckily for Mr. Organized, the Kid didn’t get out of bed to come and find us until 7am. When he came in, he had a funny look on his face and said "Daddy, what are you doing over here?" His father replied "Mummy and I traded sides of the bed last night." And Daddy’s response to the following "Why?" was: "Just for fun, buddy. Just for fun."

Even though we’ll be heading back to our respective sides of the bed, switching things up reminded us that it is good for a marriage to look at things from the other side once in a while, to meet somewhere in the middle, to always share the things we love and - most importantly – to try something new just for fun!