Good on Claire for trying to change her husband

Claire Potter sounds like my kind of woman. She never misses a chance of trying to change her husband.

I’ve spent over 40 years doing it with mixed results so I’m always grateful when I find a soul sister with a new method.

Claire saw her husband Jim’s 50th birthday as an opportunity to “shake him up a little bit”.

Nothing too drastic, you understand. But she set him 50 challenges to achieve in his 51st year.

She wrote a list and then presented it to him on lots of pieces of coloured paper in a wicker basket on his birthday morning.

They included everything from making a loaf of home-made bread to joining a dance class, learning ‘laughter yoga’, going skinny-dipping, bell-ringing plus many more.

Some he hated, some he enjoyed, some he’ll never do again.

It wasn’t your usual bucket list of exciting challenges like parachuting or deep-sea diving. It was 50 achievable challenges. They were designed to get Jim going.

“You know when you’re not in a rut exactly, but a groove.” said Claire.

Hm, I’m with you there Claire.

Waking men up to the possibilities of renouncing the TV controller and picking up a paint brush is challenging enough at any time. But if it was disguised as a ‘birthday treat’, might it work?

Like the stalwart he is, Jim completed his challenges.

“He is more energised and pleasingly out of his groove” claims his wife.

Quick, find me a pile of coloured paper I feel a list coming on.