Good to see you and your wife had a connection the other night. Sounds positive.

OTMT- I am the same as you with the criticism thing. I, honestly, go nuts. I have an extremely hard time taking any and get personally hurt by it. Really hurt.
I think it's because I have such a hypercritical mother who can only find fault with me and has to harp on everything negative. Oh well.

For many years I felt that the only problem in the marriage was my hubby, ironically he felt the same way- haha! It wasn't till we were able to really try to see the other person's point of view on things that we really became more accepting of each other.

Has your wife posted here? I am guessing she is reading along.

Keep on the path smile

Floundering sucks- it's temporary though. You go through it to get to a happier place, I think.

M38, H37
S3, S7
Together 15 yrs
Married 8 yrs
Bomb July 2008
Inhouse separation
"I hate you" "We are over" (too many times to count)
Reconciled Sept 2009 (still worth it)