Then everything shifted last month.
Last month, my husband was laid off. It hit him harder than he expected, like the ground under him had given way without warning. He was embarrassed and angry, and worried about what it meant for us, but there was also something unspoken in the way he stopped speaking about control and started speaking about uncertainty.
The holidays opened up an old wound.
With the holidays coming up, I told him I wanted to take the kids to my parents’ house this year, partly out of fairness, and partly because I didn’t want another year to pass the same way. He said no, automatically, without discussion, as if nothing had changed at all. That’s when I calmly said, “I’m just following the rule you created since I’m the breadwinner now,” watching his expression shift as the words settled between us.
