A wife living as a “weekend couple” was left in shock after discovering her husband’s true inner feelings.
In the May 12th episode of tvN STORY’s ‘Lee Ho-sun’s Counseling Center’, a story was shared about a wife struggling with the burden of solo parenting two children.
The wife opened up, saying, “We’ve been married for five years and have two children, aged 6 and 3. But we’ve only actually lived together for two years. We were long-distance even when dating, and my husband barely comes home once a month. I feel like I’m living as a single parent. Since I do everything alone and don’t have many acquaintances around, I just feel lonely. I feel like it might be better to break up now.”
The couple married when the husband was 26 and the wife was 24. Due to the husband’s job in construction and interior design, they have been living as a weekend couple.
The wife felt overwhelmed by the lack of support while raising the children, and when the husband did visit, he was so busy spending time with the kids that the wife felt pushed to the background.
The wife shared a particularly frustrating incident: “We went to an amusement park as a family, and a boy pushed our child. The boy just looked at us, laughed, and walked away. What made me angrier was that the boy’s parents saw it and just walked past without saying a word. When I asked why they didn’t apologize, they told me I was being too sensitive over nothing. Meanwhile, my husband just stood there blinking, saying nothing.”
When asked why he didn’t speak up, the husband claimed he stayed quiet to prevent the situation from escalating. Hearing this, Lee Ho-sun criticized him, asking, “Are you just some neighborhood ahjussi?” She pointed out that the husband seemed unaware of the problem, especially since this wasn’t the first time such a thing happened.
The wife also admitted that she finds it difficult to handle the first child’s emotions. Lee Ho-sun diagnosed this by saying, “The wife is inexperienced in parenting. Her so-called parenting self-efficacy is low.”
The wife was exhausted by the indefinite weekend couple lifestyle. When Lee Ho-sun asked if there was anyone to help, the wife replied, “My husband is the only person I can talk to.” When asked why she didn’t move to be with him, she explained the practical struggle: “Due to his job, he can’t stay in one region. I’m not in a position to move every time he does.”
Lee Ho-sun noted, “The wife is not only doing solo parenting but is also living in solitude. The wife is purely innocent, while the husband seems like a ‘double portion’ [of passivity], giving off the vibe of a ‘good boy’.”
The husband was also exhausted by the repeated fighting. He revealed, “Because I have a personality that tends to be led by others, I didn’t know what to do now that I’m the head of the household. I’m grateful that my wife follows my lead, but I wish she would share her honest feelings when she’s struggling.”
The husband admitted he felt stress from enduring things alone and feared that if his bottled-up emotions exploded, it would lead to divorce. The wife was deeply shocked to hear this for the first time, saying, “I had no idea. He always told me we just had to overcome it. I don’t think I’d be okay if we divorced,” expressing her confusion.
