A Wife Claims She Needs To ‘Give Up Being A Mom’ To Focus On Her Mental Health, But Her Husband Struggles To Be Supportive
Excerpts:
He says his wife’s decision has left him feeling overwhelmed.
By Nia Tipton
Written on Mar 24, 2024
A husband has admitted that he’s struggling to accept his wife’s decision to step back from her parental role so she can focus on getting better after struggling with her mental health.
Posting to the subreddit “r/Marriage,” he claimed that his wife has been struggling mentally but can’t understand why that means he needs to step up and take on all of her parental duties while she works to get better.
His wife admitted that she wants to ‘give up being a mom’ to focus on her mental health.
In his Reddit post, he explained that his wife recently had a mental health emergency where the police and medical professionals were called to take her to the emergency room.
She was believed to have suffered a psychotic episode and despite having been stable in regards to her depression and anxiety, which she’s had for years, she ended up in a depressive episode which led to the psychotic break.
… During the talk with his wife, she also admitted that she couldn’t be a mom at this moment and needed to focus on her mental health and getting better. The couple has 4 children together, ranging in age from 4 to 16.
“My wife stated her plan is to go to her parents’ house so ‘the kids weren’t a distraction.’ I didn’t say this to her when we spoke but I almost feel like she is abandoning the kids,” he wrote.
He acknowledged that while he’s supportive of his wife getting all of the necessary treatments she needs and healing, he feels that it’s unfair to their children to have their mother just gone like that.
He explained that if his wife takes time for herself, it’ll ruin future plans he’s made.
He insisted that not only had he planned on taking some time off from work, but that his work schedule is pretty hectic as it is, and he usually doesn’t leave for work until his children are nearly out of school and doesn’t return home until the early hours of the morning.
They don’t have any local family members close enough to care for the children while he’s at work, and his wife’s family is currently helping her while she’s in the hospital.
“I am the main income for the household, so I can’t really quit either. My work hours literally only worked because she was able to be a mother,” he continued. “I just don’t know what to do honestly.”
He voiced his frustrations with his wife’s decision to take a step back from her parental responsibilities, especially because their younger children have constantly been asking him when their mother is coming home, and he’s had to tell them that she isn’t for some time and that she “doesn’t want to be a parent right now.”
In every partnership, there are going to be moments when one person picks up the slack for the other.
He’s certainly in a sticky situation, but it’s only temporary. For the foreseeable future, she needs the support of her husband, especially since she didn’t anticipate having a psychotic break in the first place. …
— end excerpts —
You can read the rest of that page here.
Looks like marriage and parenthood didn’t bring anyone here great mental health, consistent joy, or purpose.
I’m sure not against marriage or parenthood, but I do see other conservatives “over” hyping marriage and parenthood quite often – there are studies out there demonstrating that never married or divorced adults are happier than married ones, by the way – but conservatives often like to depict that state of being married parents as vastly superior to being single and childless. But clearly, it’s not.
The woman in that article is a married mother, but she is still having mental health problems requiring her to step back from her marriage and her children.
Related:
(Link): Women Are Divorcing – And Finally Finding Happiness by L. Lenz
(Link): Dear Abby: I Just Got Out of the Hospital and My Husband Still Expects Me to Cook for Him
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(Link): Newlywed Bride Killed in Gold Buggy Accident on Holiday with Husband
(Link): I Went on a Girls’ Holiday for My 40th and Realized I Didn’t Miss My Husband So I Divorced Him
(Link): Dear Abby: I Rushed Into Marriage, Now My Husband Completely Ignores My Existence.
(Link): Dear Abby: I’m Jealous That My Husband Gives More Attention to Our Dog Than Me
(Link): Worrying ‘Married Single Moms’ Trend Shows that Modern Relationships are ‘Not Working’
(Link): Why Women Are Tired: The Price of Unpaid Emotional Labor by C. Hutchison
(Link): There is No Such Thing as a Gift of Singleness or Gift of Celibacy or A Calling To Either One
(Link): Family as “The” Backbone of Society? – It’s Not In The Bible
(Link): Newlywed Christian Husband Fatally Shot by Stray Bullet as He Slept With Wife
(Link): Groom Finds Bride Dead Morning After their Wedding
(Link): Bride Battling Cancer Dies 18 Hours After Exchanging Vows
(Link): Groom Gets Killed by Car Hours After Marrying
(Link): Georgia bride dies hours after wedding in car crash with newlywed husband – who could be charged
(Link): Man Who Lost His Wife Puts Sign in Window Asking for Friends: ‘It’s My Last Resort’
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