I should have added to my last post that a wife can be unappreciative as well. A husband who works a full-time job puts in just as much time as his wife, perhaps more counting commuting, and may not have as many chances for breaks during the day.

I have known some wives, both working and not, who expect their husbands to take over when they get home so that the wives can get away. I don't think this is a bad idea in and of itself, but it can be carried to an extreme. When I was a young wife, I thought that my husband should be around for me to talk to when he got home. We lived in the country, most every phone call was long distance, and I had spent the day with babies or small children. How I longed for adult conversation! My husband is a patient man, but it did not take him long to point out to me that he needed down time too. He is a person who works out frustration with puttering, so his refuge was to go to our little barn and work on things. I took the kids and went outside when I needed company, and most of the time that worked.

I wasn't perfect....there were lots of times when I thought my husband should have helped more, especially since his job took him away four or five days a week, and I am certain that there were times he thought I should get out of his face. I think that, as in all things, married couples have to work at appreciating each other.

My husband probably borders on being a workaholic, but I was always able to point him out as an example to our children because he does a good job whether anyone is watching him or not. This causes him a lot of stress since he is a supervisor and not all the people he supervises are as industrious as he is, but I do admire him for his diligence.

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