XMAS CHEAT SHEET FOR WIVES TO CATCH STRAYING SPOUSES
By BILL HOFFMANN
December 24, 2004-- Mommy may be kissing "Santa Claus" — but Daddy could be cheating for real.
The days and weeks following Christmas are the best time for wives who suspect their spouses are unfaithful to find telltale signs, says Ruth Houston, author of "Is He Cheating on You? — 829 Telltale Signs."
"A cheating husband can be exposed by the Christmas gifts he gives — and receives," Houston says.
One of the biggest giveaways is the "hidden gift discovered before Christmas that has now disappeared, but wasn't given to you. If no one else in the family received it, who did he give it to?"
A thank-you note or e-mail from a woman for a gift the wife has no knowledge of is also a tip-off.
So are gifts of a personal nature given by a female business acquaintance or "casual" friend, she says.
Expensive items that suddenly appear around the house after Christmas, which a husband tries to pass off as items he purchased, may mean an affair is in progress.
Houston began her research into spotting two-timing spouses nine years ago after she accidentally discovered her own (now ex-) husband's affair.
The New York City author conducted hundreds of interviews with infidelity victims, cheating husbands, relationship therapists, private investigators and marriage and family counselors to compile the top signs of two-timing.
"If a husband is really cheating on his wife, there will be dozens of other corroborating signs just waiting to be found. Knowing what to look for is the key," says Houston, now happily remarried.
"The wife no longer has to be the last to know!"