December/June or Failure to Launch?

I was talking to a couple the other day. I couldn't quite get a handle on the nature of their relationship.

At first I thought it was a man and his mother.

But when I mentioned this to my daughter, who had been with me, she thought the woman was too young to be his mother. I thought she was too old to be his wife.

Here are the facts of the case:

They moved into their house a few years ago.

As far as I know it is just the two of them.

He looked to be around 40. Fit. Full head of auburn hair and a neatly groomed beard and 'stache.

She, I would have guessed, looked closer to 60. Short hair. Grey. Bit of pudge.

As we talked, my kids got mentioned a couple times (as in, 'yeah, I don't have much time for landscaping what with raising 6 kids', or 'yeah, our pool keeps pretty busy what with all our kids'. That kind of thing). But neither of them mentioned kids at all. I was hoping for her to say something along the lines of, 'when my other kids gets together with my son here...'. Or if Julie had been right about husband/wife it might have been, 'it's been quiet here ever since our daughter left for college'. SOMEthing. But I got nothin'.

I never saw any physical signs of affection that would have provided any clues. But if I had I don't know whether I would have been relieved to find out they were married or skeeved at their incestuousness.

So people, help me out here. This is like 'It's Pat' from SNL. I need to find a way to reveal who they are to each other short of whipping out the binoculars and stalking them. Next time I have an interaction with them, what do I say that would force an answer without them even knowing they were under investigation?

For instance, if he's her son, I could perhaps ask him,
"So how do you like your big-boy bed?"
Or to her,
"The library runs a nice Mommy and Me story hour on Saturdays"

If she's his wife, I could drop,
"We swing. Do you?"

I don't know. I don't think any of those would work. I need subtlety here. And I need help with it. So give me your suggestions, friends. I won't be able to sleep at night till I know one way or the other....





Click this button if you're a mother.
Click this button if you have a son.
Don't click this button if you are living with your son as your husband.
JK, go ahead and click anyway. I'll take it.




Thanks for the image, Public Health Grand Rounds.....