Ball and Chain...?

I love being married, I really do. What I can't stand though is when people refer to me as my husband's ball and chain right in front of me. -_- I think that's extremely rude... Not only is it offensive to me, but it really offends my husband, too. He really hates it when people say things like that, because he feels that I'm anything but a ball and chain. I don't weigh him down or keep him from going out with friends or having fun, or try to control him in any way. Doing that would just send a marriage crashing and burning into a pit of unhappiness, and who wants that? I know I don't. :P 

Unfortunately, there are people who believe that it is inevitable for a woman to become mad and self-centered as soon as they get married. I can't tell you how many times my husband's friends had "warned" him and told him that he better think twice about getting married once we had gotten engaged. They told him that I may seem all sweet and amazing to him at the time being, but once we get married, I'd be different... They said he could kiss his freedom goodbye and that he would land up miserable and that eventually, I might land up either cheating on him or leaving him for someone else. They had said not to trust the things I say. Hearing that (yes, they said this while I was in earshot) really hurt. 

I know I probably shouldn't have let it get to me, because I know that I've been nothing but my true self ever since my husband and I had first met. I was never a crazy lady (well... okay, maybe a little bit. I'm a fun kind of crazy though... :P) who yells and throws fits over nothing and complains about everything, nor did I ever feel the need to ever boss anyone around. As for the cheating/finding someone else part, that just completely goes against my moral code.  xP The woman who they said I would become is not in the least bit like me, and I would never want to be her. Even now, they say to just give it more time, and it'll happen... I'm just glad my husband had never believed them and knows me well enough to be able to see that I'm not going to change.

Still, I wonder where people even get these ideas about marriage from? Thinking that way is really unfair to all of the wonderful women and loving wives out there. Even if they had encountered one woman who was like that, it doesn't mean that we all are going to be that way. It's a real shame that so many people have such a negative outlook on marriage and horrible expectations from wives and soon-to-be wives... I just wish that horrible stereotype would just go away... It gets really annoying hearing about it over and over again. :/