Be Grateful

I can't tell you how many times I have heard women complaining about their children and I just feel like saying be grateful.

Be grateful that it is just your children's silliness or minor rebellion. And not a husband that is alcoholic. Be grateful that you don't have to work. Be grateful that someone is taking care of your family and doing the things they vowed to. Because I think we take our vows for granted. For a long time I took my own dad for granted. How hard he worked to provide for all of us without ever a complaint. He was happy to do it. And I've always just thought that was the way it was. That that was his duty. And same with my first husband. He came home from work - hard physical labor no less, sometimes 20 hours at a time - cleaned and cooked. Even took on a newborn when his mom neglected him. He took care of that baby pretty much all by himself for a year. And he still managed to pay all his bills. I never heard a complaint.

And I wonder. How is it that my husband who claims to work so hard has made the same income as me YTD. While I have been taking care of these kids full time? My husband with all his family's money and talent and everything else. And here I am some "poor" girl taking care to two little kids and I'm making the same?

I have been on commission for 12 years. I can tell you this. You know when your checks are coming. You know because you have earned them. So why is it that husband has been counting on the same big check for over a month? And it's not here. So why do I find out when a copy comes in the mail and not ahead of time? How hard can it be?

And when I ask him about it, he explodes in the car - with our children trapped there listening to all of it. Telling me that I need to go to work.