Maybe this is me venting, but last night I get home from work and my wife is busy cooking a meal. I'm feeling a little tired so I go to my bedroom and see my 3 year old hanging out there. I kick off my shoes and look at a Youtube video about space exploration for a little bit on it before a nap I was planning. About 5 minutes into the video, my wife comes in, and grabs my phone and says, "You should be spending time with your family", despite me hanging out there with my son. She then goes back into the kitchen with my phone.
Fifteen minutes later, I realize I can't sleep, (probably because she ticked me off there) so I come out and try to grab my phone back in a teasing manner. She refuses, so I tell her in a stern manner to give it back, and she begrudgingly gives it back. She continues cooking while I wash some dishes in silence. Casserole goes into the oven, and she says, "Come with me to the post office". We walk there and nothing is said, except the "Are you mad at me?, No....(silence)" type stuff.
After dinner, I lay down on the couch and try to take a nap again. My wife sits down and does a crossword puzzle. The kids play keep-away with themselves in the front room or read. Still angry at the situation, I can't sleep so I go and do the dishes. She does her crossword puzzle, then pulls be into the bedroom. She says, "I'm sorry, I was treating you like a child. You are the man of the house, and I need to treat you as such." I say, "That's OK", kiss her and return to the evening chores with my fumes dissipated.
After we put the kids to bed, she reopens the argument and tells me, "You really made me feel like crap tonight, I wanted you to spend time with me". blah blah blah....... Eventually, we made up.
Question is, "What is a reasonable amount of time to be spending doing your own thing in the evening?" I usually have about 4 hours from the time I arrive at home until lights out at night. Chores need done, which is usually one hour, post office run with wife is usually 45 minutes, playing with kids usually is 1 hour or so, scripture study is 1/2 hour. That leaves me with maybe 1 hour to do my own thing on the weeknights, if I don't have some church related responsibility going on that night.
This has to be the biggest, and most frequent argument brought up between us, and I would imagine many other married couples out there. My wife is a good partner and we are happily married. There is only so much time in the day though, and having my nose to the grindstone 24/7 is no way to live.
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