Muddle, good to hear from you. Sounds like things are going well, as they say, no news is good news! She's making attempts to connect with you, that's positive. I still hear your frustration at hearing that you don't meet her needs yet you are working your butt off to do all the day to day things that help her to keep her head above water. As you know, I live that life too. It's hard to know where to draw the line, isn't it. If I don't cook then the kids don't get fed till really late. If I don't pay the bills the credit rating gets screwed. If I don't handle the budgeting ....you get the picture. Yet I'm not doing the things that are really important like emotionally supporting her blah blah blah. When I do try to listen I get told to buzz off! When I try to get her to do some of theseday to day things to help her feel more included in our family, as she says she feels excluded, I'm told she doesn't really want to do any of those things. Arggggh! So we're supposed to run our asses off doing a million things so the W, in my case, can work at her high stress job but are also supposed to be there unconditionally etc. How can it be done? It's also important to keep things sane so that the rest of the family doesn't suffer. You want things to be pleasant and not to be creating a battleground for the kids to be a part of. So, this long winded rant was meant to say "I'm with you, guy!" Damn, I should have just said that in the first place
