My husband went on multiple glamorous boys' trips thanks to a rich friend

"I finally threatened divorce. I was happy for him, but I was also stuck at home with two little kids."

It sounds a bit like a script from a Hollywood film.

A millionaire mate offers to whisk you away from the daily grind on an all-expenses paid trip to play golf on some of the world’s most prestigious courses.

Very glamorous.

But for my husband, it was no Hollywood movie, nor was it a dream. That was his reality – three times in fact.

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"My husband has a very generous, very rich, mate"

You see, my husband has a very generous, very rich mate who doesn’t have kids and loves treating his buddies to the most incredible golf-themed holidays.

When our son was seven months old, the friend invited my husband to play golf in New Zealand on an all-expenses paid trip. 

“What do you think, honey? Do you mind if I go?” my husband asked.

“Of course,” I said. “Go for it.”

My husband had the time of his life playing at Jack’s Point Golf Course in Queenstown. Next, there was an invite to stay on the Mornington Peninsula the following year. 

Off my husband went to spend the weekend on the fairways at RACV Cape Schanck and Moonah Links Golf Resort. That time, they stayed in an Airbnb that rents out for a cool $25,000 a week. Lucky them!

A year later, my husband came home from work and mentioned that old mate had invited him to Maui, Hawaii for their annual golfing trip.

At this point in the story, we need a little context.

Image: Supplied

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"We were always too broke"

I’ve always loved travel and had largely put it on the backburner since having kids.

My husband and I are both self-employed and every time I’d asked him whether we could plan a trip overseas, it had always been the same story.

“I have commitments to my clients,” he’d tell me. “I can’t just up and leave.”

Or if we did have an international holiday, there were strict limits about how long we could go for. “I have to be back at work,” he would say.

When he came home asking for my blessing to up and go to Hawaii with something like four weeks' notice, I'm sorry, but I snapped.

It wasn't that I begrudged my husband a holiday. The poor brute works hard and he deserves a break.

What irritated me was that he was willing to jetset to Hawaii within weeks of being invited, but whenever I proposed a family holiday, he always said he couldn't take time off work and that we were too broke. To be fair, this trip was going to be all-expenses paid, so there was no cost factor involved.

He ended up going to Hawaii and staying at the Four Seasons, where he was wined and dined by his millionaire mate. 

His holidays were always poorly-timed. Image: supplied

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"He didn't understand why I was annoyed"

Each time he’d send a photo of them on the green at Kapalua Golf Course or being silly bomb diving in the grown-ups pool at the Four Seasons, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

When he returned home, we fought about it for a long time. He couldn’t see why I was irritated. From his perspective, he felt like I was being selfish and jealous.

It literally almost ended our marriage and for years, both of us were really sour about it. Incidentally, his other mate who was also invited to attend had a massive blow up with his wife about it too. 

It’s been a few years now, and there haven’t been any invites since.

Part of me was left wondering whether I was being a grinch? Was I just jealous that he could go and have the time of his life while I was ditched with our two kids?

Maybe I was. Maybe I just need to find myself a fairy godmother to make my travel dreams come true. I won't hold my breath.

Originally published as My husband went on multiple glamorous boys' trips thanks to a rich friend