This is the third post in a series of guest posts from different female bloggers around the net.
The ideas for these posts sprang from the question, "What do wives wish good husbands
knew?"  This post was written by Granny Sykes, who is a newspaper columnist and author of the book
Operations and Maintenance Manual of Female Homosapiens.

           
Bad news, guys.  The top things a woman wants from a man are
all emotional things.  We want to feel cherished, secure, romanced,
and connected.  The good news is I stopped at four.
And even better news. I can decode our amorphous “feelings” into actual actions you can deliver
CHERISHED.
We want to be the reason you get up and slay dragons. Tell us that. Rave about how we inspire you to be a better man in front of others. Compliments are more potent in front of others.
Find a physical attribute that is germane to only us (which weight and age won’t ruin) that sends you over the moon—our dimples, our belly button, our pouty lower lip, the widow’s peak in our hairline, the shape of our fingernails. All other women should be lesser in comparison to us.
Even when caught noticing a younger, prettier woman, she is to remind you of us. No matter what she is wearing or doing inspires you to apply it to us. We would look good in it or doing it.
SECURE.
Don’t let us live in fear. Never, ever threaten to divorce us. Don’t bully us, shame us, hit us, or curse at us.
Live within your budget. Then we can relax and can help you reach your dreams. You don’t like it when we gain weight? We don’t like when it you have bill collectors calling day and night.
Be a soft place to fall for our troubles. We need to know you are in our corner—not our boss’ or colleague’s. Take our side even when we are wrong, which only means you say our point of view is valid. When you first acknowledge our point of view is valid, we can then be reasonable and listen to other solutions that might work better.
ROMANCED.
Translation: jewelry, flowers, exotic vacations, hand made gifts, love notes, long walks together, back rubs, candlelight dinners. Keep courting us like you did when we were dating. You got married thinking life would be a constant source of sex? We got married thinking life would be a constant flow of romance.
There’s a payoff. Romance from you equals sex from us.
CONNECTED.
Give us your undivided attention at least one hour a day. Touch us often (groping, fondling, and grabbing don’t count).
You know how we always tell you all our problems and then don’t let you fix them? Well, we do want our action-adventure husbands to fix something—us. You can do that by simply saying, “I’m sorry that happened to you.” That line says you felt our pain. Then hug us. We were on tilt and the hug put us upright again. Now we were empowered to go fix our problem. See? You can fix our feelings.
And we don’t want you to be faithful just because you are virtuous. When looking at a pretty woman, say instead, “Sex with her would be empty. Only you make my heart glow.”