I work in an office as the sales manager, keeping a close eye on everyone to ensure theyre performing well, saying the right things, running client meetings according to all our standards, and sealing deals that benefit us. The workloads heavy; I spend hours drafting and redrafting reports for the directors. Lately, though, Im almost glad for all the extra tasks and late evenings. I stay on purpose. Its preferable to heading home to my wife and daughter.
Since our daughter was born, my wife has been utterly unbearable. Nothing I do for her or the baby is right. My mother-in-law scolds me at every opportunity, and I feel torn between clocking up unpaid overtime at work or returning to a house where Im always being shouted at. On one side is my wife, on the other, our newborn daughter…
I always thought I was a good husbandmy wife used to tell me so. She made me believe Id be a great father, but now everythings wrong: I hold our daughter incorrectly, I change her nappy wrong, I cook for my wife and she finds fault with it all. My own mother believes my wife is still recovering from childbirth and taking her time to adjust to caring for the baby, and since I work late into the evening, its harder for her. But its been like this for three months, and thats why Id rather stay in the office until seven, come home by eight, and endure only two hours of shouting, instead of leaving at half past five and suffering for three and a half.
