K-Drama Familiar Wife | Four Marriage Lessons From K-Drama Land

I don't usually write a post on Fridays but I felt compelled to post something after watching this K-drama on Netflix. I indulged a bit on Netflix this month because it's a school holiday and my daily routine is more flexible when the kids aren't in school (less commuting and stuck in the traffic jam etc).

Familiar Wife was released in 2018. The plot revolves around a married couple, Cha Ju Hyeok (played by Ji Sung) and Seo Wu Jin (played by Han Ji Min). After several years of marriage with 2 young children, the spark has gone from their life and they started to take each other for granted. Fierce arguments and fights become a norm as they slowly drifted apart. In his desperation and frustration, Ju Hyeok wanted to divorce his "monster" wife because life with her has become so unbearable.

In the twist that only happened in K-Drama land, Ju Hyeok was given a chance to time-travel to change his present life. In this "new life" or this new alternate reality, Ju Hyeok is not married to Wu Jin but to Hye Won, a beautiful socialite, he had a crush on while he was in the university. He was ecstatic to finally get rid of Wu Jin and his miserable life with her.

But the grass is not always greener on the other side...

I am very picky about the things I watch on TV and most of the time I only stick to TV shows by my favorite celebrities. But I was drawn to this drama because it was about marriage or family life. I guess because it was more relatable to me, as compared to drama about young people in the early stage of romance or stuff like that.

Familiar Wife is a very interesting show, funny, with some great marriage lessons thrown in the mix. Here are some of it:

❤️ Marriage is a teamwork ❤️

You can't be individualistic in marriage. Once you are married, you can't let everything - finance, childcare, parenting, heck even sex - fall to one person. Work together, be present in the relationship, and communicate with each other.

In the drama, the wife Wu Jin was hugely responsible for the childcare while the husband was busy with work. And mind you, Wu Jin works full time too. So, you can imagine her resentment toward her husband as she struggles with the kids while struggling with her job as well. He clearly didn't carry his childcare load and selfishly dumped that responsibility on her.

❤️ Learn to communicate ❤️

Learn to communicate with each other instead of having a childish shouting match. Marriage is for adults, not for kids, so communicate like adults.

If you disagree on something, take time to calm down instead of lashing out with disagreement. Sit down and talk. Listen to what your partner has to say. Don't bottle up your feelings because that is a "recipe" to explode in the future.

In the drama, the wife Wu Jin has turned into a scary monster with her regular outburst of temper tantrums. Gone is the sweet girl Ju Hyeok fell in love with and all that is left is a haggard temperamental woman he barely recognized.

❤️ It takes a village to raise the kids ❤️

We can't raise our kids in isolation but this is a sad fact for millions of parents around the globe. Many of us don't have the privilege of having our extended family live nearby. We don't have a support system to help with parenting needs or where the kids can have a safe place to interact with trusted adults. Children need a community of healthy adults (other than their parents) to support them to create a strong social and emotional support system.

In the drama, Je Hyeok and Wu Jin relied on their extended family and closed friends to help them with babysitting when they needed to work late etc.

❤️ Make the effort to go on dates ❤️

This is very hard to do especially when the kids are still very young and it's not easy to find babysitters. I can totally understand the struggles because I had been there. And who has the mood to go on dates when you are feeling tired of work and life?

In the drama, Ju Hyeok and Wu Jin went on dates when her mom offered to babysit the kids.

Dates don't have to be expensive or grand. A walk in the park, just the two of you, talking and having fun together is enough to bring that much-needed spark to your marriage.

Here's a picture of me and my husband making funny faces while on a date at the park 😁

And here is one of my previous posts about our 16th anniversary: Our 16th Wedding Anniversary and Five Marriage Lessons I Learned Throughout the Years

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Note: All images used belong to me unless stated otherwise.

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