By Zawadi Lompisha

My sister and her husband have been having a long running disagreement on the type of dining table they should buy.

Round, square, brown, black, glass top and retro are just a few of the considerations that have been, as it were, put on the table, without any consensus being reached. Each prefers something that the other can’t stand.

Consequently, they have not had a dining table for the last two years and the space allocated for it has been left vacant.

Visiting with them means balancing your plates on your knees and for those with children, eating at their place means the plates have to be placed on the floor.

Last week, she called me and informed me that they were now the proud owners of a beautiful dining table and we were now welcome for a grand dinner to welcome it to its new abode.

Simple decisions like which sofa set to choose can be a problem to men. Photos/Courtesy

"What?" I exclaimed, asking: "How did that happen?"

"All I can tell you Zawadi, is that he finally acted like the man. You come for dinner and I will explain," she promised.

"At this rate," my younger brother remarked, "it could actually be possible for our politicians to agree on a new constitution!" that captured the essence of why that dining table was not just an ordinary dining table.

When we visited, the couple immediately led us to the dining area.

"But this is the table that I thought your husband has always wanted and you didn’t seem to like it," my husband was quick to point out in total surprise.

"I have no problem with it; in fact I think it makes the whole area look rather grand," she replied.

"Ok," I couldn’t wait any longer. "What’s the story?" I asked.

She explained that for her the issue has never been the dining table. The idea of the dining table had been her husband’s from early on.

Every time they would go into a furniture shop, he would welcome her to give her opinion on any table that he picked.

What would happen, she continued, was that if she said something that sounded negative to him, he would discard that table and move to the next one.

"Eventually, if you ever noticed, he is the one who announced that we never seemed to agree on a dining table," she stated and, thinking back, it was true that my sister never once uttered those words.

"So what was different this time?" I asked.

"Last week, we walked into a shop and to my pleasant surprise, he gave me a firm ultimatum," she began.

"I told her that enough was enough on this dining table circus and we must go home with a dining table. I didn’t care what she thought about the table; all I wanted was to have a dining table in the house that evening," he explained.

He had expected her to put up a big fight due to his stance, but instead she happily acceded to his demand and they settled for the first table he picked, which she had previously declared she did not like.

"All I wanted was for my husband to exercise leadership and I was happy that after all this time, he had finally become man enough to decide on a table," she said.

Every woman needs to know that her man is ready to take a stand on things and not always expect her to be there to encourage him to make the decisions.

I wondered how many a marriage is in trouble because of husbands who never make the call and wives who are frustrated.