I say the heartfelt advice is amazing too. Sometimes blunt and to the point is very good.

I shall sit here being very pleased that I have invested Actual Venture Capital ($1.00) in Matt's Clue-By-Four proposal, because I like to imagine getting to use it sometimes.

Dear Mrs. Gud: Grrrrrr. No argh for you!

There are definitely some wise people. It's tough for me to know what to do, she's not a bad person and when things are going well, then, well, things go well. But I know she has some self-esteem issues that I think fuel a lot of lashing out when she's stressed or such. Also, she tends to intrepret things as "you don't care about me" that also comes from the same source. Hopefully, I'm just overreacting and this will blow over without causing much damage.

Clue-By-Four

Brillant phrase.

Gud, I think you're married to my mom.

Also, she tends to intrepret things as "you don't care about me" that also comes from the same source.

The thing is, she has to realize that not watering the plants doesn't negate caring for your kids singlehandedly for four days. And working on top of it. *That's* caring. That's being a committed, loving partner and parent.

I just hope you know that. I want her to see it, too, but I'm more interested in *you* knowing that, at least from what I read here, you're doing everything you can do to make your marriage work.

Gud, I think you're married to my mom.

I'm proud of you, son. Sorry about the sucky people making doing your job difficult.

I'm proud of you, son. Sorry about the sucky people making doing your job difficult.

Psst. Tell him it's OK if he dates a caucasian devil woman...

And working on top of it.

I didn't, I took time off. The only working was around the house. The kids were super good and made it easy.

Nodding along and seconding, thirding and fourthing what everyone else has said, especially juliana and Hec and Aimée and erika and... well, especially everybody.

And also, what erika said about a girl sometimes happily giving anything to know that her dad is even having an emotion. You don't want to burden Emaryn with needing to fix you when you're sad, but it doesn't sound at all like that's what you're doing. It won't break her to know that her father feels sad sometimes, that things can be tough for grownups too. And her response speaks volumes about her kindness and empathy -- and also about your parenting, and about the atmosphere you provide for her. There are so many households where, even if one parent sprang an emotional leak and everyone noticed, no one would dare say anything about it. You're clearly a safe and comforting person to her, and she wants you to feel safe and comforted too. And that's very, very good.

Thanks all. I've got to offload and run though, I'm getting work done, but I need to put in full effort on work right now.