A supportive spouse, especially emotional support, is a cornerstone of a solid and successful relationship. But what if you feel that your spouse isn’t encouraging or happy for small wins?
A Redditor asked on a popular forum, Am I wrong, for not acting impressed by my wife’s “accomplishment”? We want to know what from all of you reading this, what do you think.
Here is the story –
Backstory
The Original Poster (OP) is a 28-year-old male; his wife is a 26-year-old woman. They have been married for close to 7 years.
They had five kids together – the eldest was a 6-year-old male, the other was a 4-year-old male, and the youngest one was a 3-year-old female, and OP’s wife gave birth to fraternal twins (son and daughter) a year and a half ago.
Related: He Refused Her Stay-At-Home Wife Any Money To Help Her Family And Friends. We Think He Is Right.
What Was OP’s Wife’s Plan?
OP’s wife intended to graduate high school the year they married, but life got in the way. OP’s dad had given him an investor-relations role at his company, so they traveled a lot. Then after that, the kids needed attention.
After their twins were born, OP’s wife was bedridden for longer than they and even the doctors expected. Since they had to hire help for childcare-related tasks that involved mobility, OP’s wife had some time on her hands.
Her mother told her that her friend who worked at a testing center said that they give GED tests every week (at least across the state of Idaho) and that she should dust off her general education knowledge.
She started browsing her laptop and enrolled in a GED prep class online.
She was better at self-paced learning than classroom learning because the stuff they were testing her on came way easier to her now than it did then, even though she’s been away from structured classroom instruction for many years.
What Did The OP Think?
Even after she was back on her feet, she’d be studying (significantly after she dropped the older two off at their respective schools).
OP would see what she was studying, and it looked pretty rudimentary to him. According to OP, he knew that getting a GED meant nothing and that she wouldn’t be able to apply to anything career-wise or commit full-time to community college, where he doubted the job prospects for students.
OP’s wife took the test, and the other day she bounded into the room and said, “Yes! I passed, I passed!”
How Did OP React To Her passing The Exam?
OP knew she would pass GED since she was doing well on the practice tests, and the GED tests were almost always on the same rudimentary topics. OP did not gripe at her but merely nodded and returned to answering an important email from a client.
OP’s wife seemed upset, so OP asked what was wrong. She replied that OP didn’t seem that excited, and OP said that it was great that she passed, but he had been telling her that it was easy and no big deal.
If she needed something to prove she knew the high school concepts, OP guessed the money was well spent.
She got even more upset and said she worked very hard, which was the essential building block to starting a career.
OP asks, “Am I wrong? My wife passed her GED test but wasn’t exactly graduating from college and wouldn’t be for at least 15 years. I just didn’t see any immediate applicability to her test. Still, I am glad she had something to challenge her while she was coming off being unable to fully care for the kids.”
What Do You Think?
Was OP correct to not be excited? Was it inappropriate for OP to tell her that GED meant nothing and he knew she would pass it anyway? How would you have reacted in this situation?
This article originally appeared here.