Happy Ever After ... ?

There is a Facebook group called ‘Disney ruined my love life’. You may read that and laugh. But then you may read it again and think, ‘hang on a sec … so did Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte and Bridget Jones and Julia Roberts …’ I could go on.
The media fascination with ‘happy ever after’ has left us spoilt by the notion that to be in love means grand gestures, fireworks and immaculately timed orchestral crescendos. Not to mention endless nights of fervent love making complete with mind-reading synchronicity and simultaneous orgasms from the offset. Or maybe I just speak for myself.

Real relationships are not perfect, because real people are not perfect. We all know too well that that first time together is awkward and fumbly, and that even after years of practice a night of passion can result in a knee to the eye or some unexpected sound effects. And as for dropping off curled up in each others arms? Forget it. Bones are hard and people are wriggly.

It’s no news flash to say that it’s the little things that make a relationship special - having someone who makes your coffee just right, takes out the rubbish when it’s raining and remembers to buy milk - but it can be easy to forget to value - or indeed to carry out - such gestures, and all too tempting to hold on to adolescent fantasies. Maybe occasionally we should take a reality check on our expectations. And anyway, let’s be honest - would you really want someone to come flying in through your window at midnight, fresh from Carpet Right, declaring their undying love for you? I’m pretty confident that if Aladdin were to try that in my flat he would be tied up and handcuffed before he could even blink (by the police!). Maybe not quite the romantic ending I’ve daydreamed about, but at least now I’m a realist.