'The wife'

[Cigent]

As in men referring to their girlfriends as 'the wife'.

I have a friend whose boyfriend does it like of the time - 'date night with the wife', 'being spoiled by the wife', 'the wife's just at the bar'. It drives me crackers. They're not even married!

AIBU? I don't know why it winds me up so much but it really does.

I worked as an assistant to a manager who always referred to his other half as "the wife ". Worked for him for about 4 years and still didn't know her name by the time I moved on. I found it really odd as he wasn't really a blokey type.

I'm married.
I'm ' my missus ' or ' our lass '
He's ' my old man '
We call our daughters ' our lass '

I don't care how other couples refer to each other, married or not.

Yes! I hate that.

Interesting theory, and you're probably right, but I would still be suspicious of anyone who uses "myself" when they mean "I" or "me".

It's "Clare, the kids and I went to the zoo", not "myself, Claire and the kids went to the zoo".

Hubby is up there too. If your marriage, not married it’s still annoying.

Married

I lived north east for a number of years and would hear "our Peg" or "our Maud" for girlfriend/wife

Get him to say better half.

Me bird

I'm referred to as
The witch or
The long haired admiral
I don't mind - it's better than being called babe!! 😂😂😂

Its supposed to be some kind of laddish banter speak to imply that the woman in question has their commitment/exclusivity whilst also devaluing/diluting any value implied by the words "wife" "wifey" etc as some kind of cute "nickname" type name.
Some women actually find it endearing and even more sad, some women secretly think it is some kind of coded profession of devotion LMHO

Nah. Who cares. Marriage is archaic anyway and I’m married. Warms my wee cockles to see how far we’ve come from the days of folk being looked down on for not being married

In the male dominated industry I worked in a few decades ago it was perfectly normal to call your girlfriend "Mrs H" or "Mrs L" or whatever the man's surname was in terms of initial, even tho in none of those situations were the couple either married or even engaged.
The men always did it - looking back it was incredibly patronising.

Yes, oddly enough I'm aware she's not his wife.

Partner sounds more like they're in a business relationship. It's also a very vague term. People call themselves 'partners' when they're not even living together, you see it a lot on here.

Whilst I agree some terms of endearment are cringeworthy, I don’t see how married people have exclusive rights to the ‘in-law’ terminology. I call my partner’s parents my in-laws because it’s easier. What would you prefer we say when we have children together and have been together years?

Could be worse

ah posted too soon

Could be worse, I’m sometimes referred to as the long stint bint, no idea what bint even means

I don't mind when do says "the wife" to people I don't know but it gets my back up a bit if it's to people I do know.

This site!!! I know it's grammatically incorrect but that is how they speak.

I had a whole shift of men who spoke about “the wife”. I always assumed that they shared her.

I hate it!

DH doesn't call me 'wife' to other people - but has me in his phone as wife and usually addresses cards to wife and says hello wife when I come home

My mum hates it, but I like it - dh says he's the only one that has the privilege of calling me that - every other bugger can call me Jackstini!

Way to miss the point.

Myself, himself, yourself is very common in Ireland.

Partner sounds more like they're in a business relationship. It's also a very vague term. People call themselves 'partners' when they're not even living together, you see it a lot on here.

But it's still much more accurate than "wife", surely? I'm in my thirties, and people have been using "partner" to mean someone you're in a long-term relationship with for as long as I can remember. It's not a new phrase. It's clear from the context if you're talking about a business partner or a romantic partner.

As an aside, I knew a man who started referring to his boyfriend as his "hubby" three weeks after they met!

All the men I know who call their girlfriends "wife" before they get married never end up marrying them...

I wonder if it's a way of making the woman feel like she's already married so she won't keep nagging for a ring?!