DEAR ABBY: I am at my wits’ end with “Barney,” my husband of 35 years. He retired two years ago, but I am still working and likely will for several more years. I’ve worked from home successfully since long before the COVID-19 pandemic, which was fine while Barney was working. When he retired, I talked to him about respecting boundaries during the day while I work. My home office is on the second floor of the house, which leaves him the entire downstairs to enjoy without disrupting me during work hours.
Unfortunately, Barney has not shown me the respect I asked for. He frequently yells upstairs for me to come help him with something, or he comes into the office and wants to talk. He wants to know what’s for dinner, and he gets upset if I’m not done working at exactly 5 p.m. He also gets upset with me if I won’t let him caress and hold me while I’m trying to work. When he worked, he often stayed late and went in after hours or on weekends. I never complained or showed him the disrespect he is showing me.
For a while, I tried to give Barney more attention because I do love him. Now, his constant complaining is so annoying that I don’t even want to spend my free time with him. I am certainly not interested in any physical expressions of love. I’ve tried to discuss this with him and even asked if he’d consider going to couples counseling, but he refuses.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
