It's passe but happy wife certainly does equal happy life. Some while ago I realised something, my happiness doesn't matter at all, especially since we had our two boys; for a time I had laboured under the illusion that somehow, I deserved getting my way etc. Then I realised, nah, wait a minute, who cares if you don't like your job or if you feel like you need more time or some of this or that, or because you're the earner, you don't have to do a fair share of the 'child rearing'. Nobody, that's who, and whatever position you've put yourself in, it was you what done it. So I shifted my attitude to focus instead on my wife's happiness, taking more of the kids stuff off her hands (I am more or less sole breadwinner at the moment) like getting them ready for school in the morning, making brekkie, occasionally making dinner, etc. And also working hard to give the Mrs more 'her' time, like to go exercise or whatever. And going out for a meal or pub crawl and stuff like that, just the two of us. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that because I decided to forego my own happiness to focus on addressing my Mrs' needs and her happiness...well, I don't have to worry about my own happiness, because now she takes care of that with her whole heart. Maybe that's the way it is supposed to be. And there is often a wee bit of truth in the glib aphorisms we (wryly) use every day. Best of luck, BTW. Hectic what you're going through. And thanks for posting about it, truly helps maintain perspective for some of the other folk here, me included.
