What is real romance?

Ladies, let me ask you something. What is romance? How is romance normally portrayed?

Most people see romance as Hollywood portrays it. Candlelight, chocolate, flowers etc. A lot of people see romance as sex. I've come to find that our expectations of the men in our lives are unreasonable because of the expectations Hollywood gives us, that authors of romance novels give us. We want the constant surprises, the love letters, the flowers, being swept off our feet, the sweet words whispered in the dark after hours of passionate yet loving love making. We want the sex Nora Roberts gives her characters, the passion portrayed in the Notebook, and the surprises/tenderness from P.S. I love you. Yet, we don't understand why our guys don't give us that! Well my friends, its because its unrealistic. Thats not romance, not REAL romance, not real love.

Romance is honesty with each other, romance is having a good time sitting together on the couch doing nothing. To me, romance is him taking out the trash or doing the dishes without being askd because he knows it helps me. When he goes to the store, getting my favorite soda or candy bar. Doing little things just because he was thinking about me. Getting a random text while he's at work that he loves me...When he does things for me, without being asked its great. It makes me love him more. When we are playing with our son and he looks at me and smiles or winks, thats romance to me. Romance is just being happy together and trying our damndest to have fun despite whats going on with finances, with family, with everything outside of ourselves. Its being together. Romance is being crazy, doing the dishes together and getting into a water fight, its the simple things in life. Ha, its wearing flannel pajamas at 8pm on a friday night and loving it. Its everything that Hollywood isn't.

Now, ladies, don't get me wrong! I'm a sucker for flowers and chocolates and the surprises and great sex etc...definitely. I have just come to expect the realistic from my guy. I know that sometimes he'll come home with a bouqet of my favorite flowers. I know that when he knows I'm having a bad day, he'll cook dinner AND clean up afterwards. When I'm up in the middle of the night with our son, he lets me sleep in the next morning if he's home. You don't have to give up getting pretty flowers or surprises all the time, just look for romance in the little acts that he does. Look for romance in the everyday things he does.

Little, daily acts of love are worth more to me than the grand gestures.