Question:
My husband is in the Army, so he’s gone frequently. This is just a way of life for us. So why is it that it’s so hard for him to assimilate back into the household when he’s only gone for a week? I asked him to jump into the household stuff this weekend (he’d gotten home Friday night) and you’d think I’d asked for his left one. Keep in mind I didn’t ask much. I asked that he get our toddler up from a nap and change a diaper. In the course of an entire day with kids, that’s not a lot.
Our Dad Response:
If you don’t spend a lot of time with kids (you know all day every day) you sometimes don’t realize how much something like a diaper change helps in the grand scheme of things.
Depending on what exactly your husband does in the Army, it could be that he needs more down-time, more time to unwind.
I personally work with developmentally disabled people in a home setting and it can be extremely draining mentally, physically and emotionally. I can’t even begin to imagine what Army life is like, but again, depending on what your husband does, it could be incredibly draining. Not to say that motherhood isn’t draining, it just seems, in my opinion, that women handle the stress of parenthood much better than men.
Of course it is possible, and a little cliched, that he was raised with the idea that a wife takes care of the children and the house while he works. If that’s the case, it may be time to have a serious talk with him about the mandatory overtime your job (wife, mother, back bone of the family) entails.
- Dad: Jason
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