His Wife Absolutely Hates That He Volunteers At A Dog Shelter
Throughout the last couple of years, this 33-year-old man’s 32-year-old wife has had a tough go of things.
She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that negatively impacted her quality of life for quite a long time.
His wife also struggled with her mental health and had several friends pass away on her. She is currently in therapy, and she has a handful of specialists that help her out.
While his wife was dealing with all of this, she worked part-time, but back in May, she resumed a full-time position as she started a medication that made her improve.
But back when his wife was not feeling well, he did all of the cooking and chores around their house.
He also drove her to every one of her appointments. He spent all his time off taking his wife to various specialists since she was so exhausted she could only bring herself to go running once weekly.
“Once she got better, I started taking up volunteering in a dog shelter, which is something I had stopped doing while she was sick because I didn’t have any time,” he explained.
Lately, his wife has mentioned to him that she feels disconnected in their marriage since he spends two nights each week volunteering.
Now, his wife is out of the house three or four evenings every week with her running club. If they’re not running, they go to yoga classes or the sauna together.
kegfire – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person or dog
When his wife comes home from her outings, she’s wiped out. And this is the outing she was going on back when she was sick.
The weekends are calmer, and he and his wife get to spend most of their quality time together then.
“She has started bringing up that if I stopped going to the shelter, I’d have more time to dedicate to other hobbies,” he said.
“She has brought up running together and how there are a few couples at running clubs. I am not a runner and never will be.”
“I love volunteering, and I feel like I’ve put it on the back burner for a long time, and it’s not nice to ask me to stop.”
He’s tried to tell his wife this, but she keeps insisting that volunteering at the dog shelter isn’t healthy and that he talks about it with too much frequency.
He actually quit speaking about his volunteer work, but that didn’t make his wife feel better: she still hates that he does this.
He attempted to question his wife about why she has such a hatred for his work, but she cannot give him a reason.
“Sometimes she says that I get sad about the dogs’ struggles, and she doesn’t want me to be sad,” he added.
“Other times, she gets upset that I help transport dogs every once in a while because it makes the car dirty even though I get it professionally cleaned after. I tried explaining it’s good for my mental health, helps me de-stress, and it’s the same as her running, which she loves.”
“She recently had a few weeks where she was unwell again and I didn’t do any volunteering and spent the time [at] home with her. She was really upset when I started volunteering again.”
Since his wife can’t give him a straight answer as to why she hates that he volunteers at the dog shelter, he’s wondering what on earth to do.
What advice do you have for him?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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