25 years ago, we moved to the house we own now. we did not want to rush to buys furniture right away, we wanted to take our time and buy the furniture that fits each room. At that time, we didn’t have our son and had time to shop for what fits each room. We did bring our furniture from the house we moved out from and so we tried to fit it to the new house as best as possible. We had wicker furniture that I had bought before we got married that we used in the kitchen in our previous house and we decided to so the same in this house too.

That furniture remained in the kitchen for a long time. We became pregnant the first time two months after we moved to the house, we lost the baby three months later, we then became pregnant again a year later and had our son. Our son was in first or second grade, we still had no kitchen table where a family can sit around to eat a meal. Every time I bring the subject up, I get the usual rage from my husband. A kitchen table does not cost much but my husband cannot fathom spending a penny on anything especially if I ask for it.

By that time, our son was kneeling on the floor to eat a meal. The wicker sofa, where we sat, was much more uncomfortable for him. I was very unhappy that a simple kitchen table we won’t buy because my husband was so unwilling to spend any money.

He has a big problem with spending money, but even worse when I ask for it. The combination of him spending money because I asked for the spending drives him up the wall. The only way I saw was to ask our family friends who have always helped us. They were visiting us and I opened the subject and showed them how our son kneel on the floor to have a meal. They basically talked sense into my husband and we went the following weekend to buy kitchen table and 4 chairs. We started our shopping trip by going to a nice furniture store where my husband liked a $5,000 table and chairs set, but ended up at the discount wholesale furniture place and bought a $500 kitchen table and chairs set. I wasn’t going to complain about the quality of the furniture, I was just happy we got the kitchen table and four chairs so we can have our meals like a normal family.

That table lasted few years until the chairs started to break down. we then took better chairs from my parents house to use with the table. We still have these chairs and the table we bought about 20 years ago.