(Barry Manilow / Enoch Anderson)

She's a great little housewife
Though sometimes she talks like a fool
But she helps at the store in the holiday rush
And she picks up the kids after school
And she puts down the 'phone
When her husband comes home
And she changes from mother to wife
'Til she feels the words hanging between them
And she hangs by her words to her life

She says....
I swear I love my husband
I love my kids
I wanted to be like my mother
But if I hadn't done it as soon as I did
Oh, there might have been time to be me for myself, for myself
So many things that she wishes
She don't even know what she's missing
And that's how she knows that she missed

She's a sweetheart except when she's moody
It's hard to get through to her then
Depressed for a while when the youngest was born
Ah, but that happens now and again
Ah, she might take a drink with the housework
Or when Michael's kept late at the shop
A martini or two before dinner
But she always knows when to stop

She says....
I swear I love my husband
And I love my kids
And, though I wanted to be like my mother
But if I hadn't done it as soon as I did
Oh, there might have been time to be me for myself, for myself
So many things that she wishes
She don't even know what she's missing
And that's how she knows that she missed

Oh, they used to hold hands at the movies
Now it's seldom, if ever, they go
Once you pay for the sitter, and parking the car
There's no money left for the show
She was doing the dishes
When a glass fell and broke on the tile
And she cut her wrist, quite by mistake
It was real touch and go for a while

She says....
Oh God, I love my husband
And I love my kids
Well, I wanted to be like my mother
But if I hadn't done it as soon as I did
Oh, there might have been time to be me for myself, for myself
So many things that she wishes
She don't even know what she's missing
And that's how she knows that she missed