I had an epiphany this morning...
I have been making my husband unhappy.
The saying 'miserable wife, miserable life' most definitely has a ring of truth to it.
My husbands job is stressful (I forget sometimes as he copes with it so well) and he's given us amazing oportunities to see the world with his job. We've both had to make sacrifices; our life plan has taken so many detours it's looking like an etch-a-sketch attacked by six toddlers.

Our life is so uncertain at the moment that we can't commit to anything as we don't know where we'll be living or where we'll be next month let alone next year. We're facing enormous pressure from his job to move to the US. As I'm an anal retentive recovering perfectionist who feels comfortable when I'm either dealing with a crisis or working towards a goal, having the goal posts turn into 'the end of the rainbow' (you can never find it... it keeps shifting) and not being allowed to fix crises has been driving me insane.

Leaving the organization of our life in the hands of the inept monkeys that seem to be in charge of the HR department where my husband is employed. Being at home twiddling my fingers and itching to get my hands on the organization of our travel/ visas etc but not being allowed to touch. Organizing our side of the arrangements and then seeing the whole lot fall in a heap when someone 'forgets' to apply for visas makes my blood boil and I turn into an inwardly seething shrew. Externally I'm fine but dig a little below the surface (or see me for who I really am; my husband is scarily in tune with me) and the reality comes out.

I've been miserable.

I've felt as though I've had no purpose and a bit of self pity and dare I say depression had kicked in.
I've made life difficult for my husband by pushing for decisions to be made when he's not in a position to make them and by not being my usually motivated, happy and self sufficient self.
I've blamed my bad mood on my husbands work issues. But really, I'm pissed off with my lot in life and my stagnation whilst people at home and surrounding me have gone onto do amazing things. I'd not seen that I should be working around the issues we've been having instead of letting them stop me in my tracks.

Seeing me unhappy and struggling here has made my husband unhappy and I've made his life hard the last few months. For that I'm exceedingly sorry.*

So my derriere has some serious boot marks this morning (self inflicted).

Have you experienced this? How do you remind yourself to see the forrest instead of the trees?

* And I've told him

Your post just took me back in time for a moment.

We went through the same thing as a couple. Me and my wife, moved here, her as a trailing spouse and for sometime, life was hard.

The same things were going on with us as are with you. And it was very very hard to get by each day.

Recently she found a job and now we are both happy and living like we are supposed to.

My advice to you : Find something to keep you occupied. Find something that takes your mind off everything else. There are some things which are beyond your or your husband's control to change, and when you have time to think about them and how you would really like to change them...thats when the proverbial sh*t hits the proverbial fan.

Take it easy. Do things that make you happy. And if you are happy within, everything will be fine. I am sure you will see the change in the environment of your household.

Relax, take it easy. Somethings are better left on fate. No point banging your head against them.

Best of luck, and hope to hear good things from you again soon.

Oh and PS : Get off that other sad thread.

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"You picked the wrong house, Bub"

Babies?

CK

Hey you are not responsible for all the misery
You also are not in an easy position (is hubby worrying about YOU??)
Take a step back, and let life take its course (no use worrying about what you cant change.
Take every hurdle as you get to it and you'll find they arnt so big
A few years ago everthing looked so black for my family and weve managed to pull through(which at the time didnt think we would) and life now is even better than before.
And on a last note sometimes its good to make men miserable

I feel for you (and husband) truly...as I was thinking the exact same thing about my life. I am such a control freak that due to circumstances in our lives where I can not take control of where it is going has just left me feeling so frustrated that giving up and going out running out the door until I am shot like a rabid dog seemed like a good idea.
Poor husband is left to pick upthe pieces, until I came to my senses last night...bi**h slapped myself and am trying to stay calm and just don;t sweat the small (or big) stuff...
Men get women flowers when they want to apologize, what can I get my hubby?

>what can I get my hubby?

Not get, give. Give him some more trust. Or, to put it another way, give some slack in the leash. You might be pleasantly surprised what comes of it.

CK

Thanks for posting this Nic.

I think many of us are in similar situations and it's nice to know we are not alone.

I think every marriage goes though the same and it's not always the husband on the receiving end so give yourself a break. Having said that I should follow your example and apologise and I should follow my advice and give myself a break

Enjoy the ride and good luck
Nats

I think, to start with, high career guys marry certain types of women. I might be completely off, but the way you want to have things functioning, logical and in order, must be appealing to your hubby. Now, it becomes a burden if you over do it, it is logical you did, considering your circumstances and how unstable your life probably is at the moment. But I'd start with being easy on yourself. So what, you are stuck here for a moment, things are out of your control, it happens sometimes in life...Try to see how you can cotrol other things, unrelated to your hubby's career or life. Even if you guys have to leave, sign up for something intense, get into a language course, every day, or some extreme gym program, generally, invest in yourself, so you see there is a program, deadline, goals to go for. Sign up in online learning, get a degree no matter where you are you can always pick up where you left off. If that helps you, who cares about the small things, you know? The housework, other little things...The worst is, or was for me, while tending a small child was somewhat taken for granted by both of us, not being able to create a social network was difficult, since we weren't sure if we were staying, I haven't properly moved here yet because was not sure we were going to pull it off, didn't have my own life/work/goals and I am extrememly goal orientated, so to create a support that gives you other perspective and kicks you in the butt when you overdo things, so you don't have to constantly kick yourself in your own ass was super important...it takes time, though Hang out with other people, their really tricky situations (financial, papers, political, etc.) they are in will make you realize, you are so much better off than they are, it's not their personality traits that complicate thier lives, but things they do not have control over. Your reaction to unstability and unpredictabilty of of high career, you do have control over. Baby steps. Show appreciation, for a little things, to your huby, and I would ask for appreciation, too, if you think you are not getting it. It will help you appreciate yourself.

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"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

a car
a ps3 ?

wow.. Needed to read a post like this today.. I can completely relate to you frustration.. In order to alleviate feeling bored I found a job doing something that is not necessarily my passion but will keep me busy here.. But 2 weeks im still feeling miserable and completely taking it out on my husband and expecting him to fix the problem...

He doesn't drive and he already has one (I also got him a PSP)

Its so nice to know I'm not the only one feeling this way! Especially as most people in Aus only see the shiny side of our life and don't want to know that behind it is often an awful lot of stress and frustration. Thank you.

I'm working on giving my husband his sane wife back. I'm sure thats the best present I can give

Take him in you arms and tell him how much you love him.

if i didn't know better, i would have thought that suggestion was made by a girl.

i think a threesome would be well received

failing that, an early steak and blowjob day

Phil - you are so.....errr... basic Must admit tho, it did make me chuckle

That's my feminine part talking......
Masculine part would have said something more ... masculine...

While some of the guys have mentioned expensive things, I have a hard time with that for two reasons - if my hubby wants something like that, he simply buys it () and since he does that, I don't feel right spending that kind of money on anything, ever.

So... a solution I've come up with is this:
Massaging foot scrub. Since my sweetie works on his feet all day, this is something he really enjoys, or at least claims to.

There are a few recipes here.

I kinda like this one, but would pick up some nice smelling massage oil (instead of using baby oil), maybe one of those "warming" ones, and let things progress how they may.



Meanwhile, regarding the topic... I've been doing this also, to some extent but it is a bit of both of us making each other miserable.

I get hung up on things I think he "should" do even though there ARE other solutions available. I get all stubborn and simply let it wait until he does it... and am still waiting on some things.

I'm a little afraid though that if I do start doing those things myself, and let myself figure out just how much I don't need him to do... will I still want to stick around?

On the other hand, I know that these thoughts have a lot to do with my emotional state which has nothing to do with him. There is a lot going on in my life right now that is pulling my emotions to focus on the US and my family there. Blaming him for things not being perfect here could easily simply be me looking for excuses to "run" to them.

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The Joys of Opticianry

Could it be just the föhn ?

why be such a score-keeper? if you have time to help him out, then just do it!

some sage advice from julie london:

I had to bully my husband into letting me give him a pedicure and foot massage as his feet started to look like they should belong to a hobbit .

Funny that after the first one he has no hesitation in accepting now