Here's an image I told my wife about that describes how I see my place in our family:
A family portrait in front a fireplace. Wife and two kids are posed together. Me, I'm not there. But I am in a nicely framed photograph on the mantel. That allows them to readily agree that they have a husband/father - just point at the framed photo in a cherished spot as evidence. It also allows them to carry on their lives with the amount of input from me that one gets from a photo. The only upkeep required is a little dusting now and then.
This was a few weeks ago that I brought it up, before my own emotional crisis ramped up. She didn't say much about it. We kinda left it, as we usually do, by chalking it up to my negative thinking and low self-esteem. You know, things for me to work on.
