A 30-year-old woman says she loves her husband, but a growing friendship between him and a female coworker has left her deeply unsettled.
The couple, both 30, have been together for eight years and share three children. After the birth of their second child she developed postpartum depression, which worsened following their third. She is in therapy, which helps, but she still experiences painful episodes.
One night while working on an art project, she noticed how late it had become and went to check on her husband. He was asleep on the couch with his phone unlocked to a conversation with a female colleague.
She admits she snooped and discovered the two have been exchanging messages every day for at least a month and have begun going to the gym together. The texts, she says, are not overtly flirtatious; he has been unusually kind and encouraging toward this coworker, praising her as a great mom who deserves the world.
That contrast is what troubles her most. She feels he responds to her sadness and depressive episodes with irritation. He gets angry when the house is messy, despite the daily demands of caring for two toddlers, and rarely acknowledges the ways she keeps the househ...