Hi MB, sounds like you've hit a rough patch. Hurts to hear that we're maybe not the great S's we thought we were. Been there, heard that, cried over it a lot.
I'm fuzzy on the details, but I hope you're getting treated for the Depression (join the majority of us and our S's here).
And MB, a request for decorum hardly means you're psycho!! Take it from me, I'm a psych prof!
Perhaps try to tone down your internal reactions to these things. Pull a 180 and get through your next meal with perfect decorum, nothing but positive comments, kindness, listening, you can do that, right?
Honesty is good, but not when it's brutal or serves to hurt another. There are gentler ways to get your point across. Had you just stuck with the comment about the quality....but the jab about frequency just negated the compliment. And quite frankly, isn't likely to inspire more frequent great meals.
How might it have gone down if you'd been very complimentary throughout dinner (you can practise turning up the volume on such things), helped clean up, and then gave your W a hug from behind and said something like "If I could eat like this every day, I would die a happy man!" Make it playful instead of a criticism.
Just some rambling thoughts, bear in mind that it's nearly 4 a.m here!
