My heart was pounding, but my mind had never felt clearer. By the following Monday, I had a part-time admin job at an insurance office, thanks to an old college friend who’d become a team lead there. The pay wasn’t glamorous, but it was steady, and I’d be home by 3 p.m.
Meanwhile, Derek took a leave of absence from work, his first ever, because he was determined to prove me wrong. “If you can do it for years, I can do it for a few months,” he said with a smirk. He strutted around like a newly crowned king!
He sent me texts all day: “Kids are fed. Dishes done. Maybe you’re just lazy.” One photo showed him reclining on the couch while Noah watched cartoons with a juice box in hand.
But when I walked in that first Friday, reality slapped both of us. Ava’s homework was untouched. Caleb had drawn a solar system on the living room wall in crayon.
Noah had a diaper rash so red it made me physically wince. Dinner was lukewarm pizza still in the box. Derek looked up from his phone, saw my judgmental look, and said, “It’s just the first week.
I’ll adjust.”
But week two was utter chaos! My husband did not “adjust.”
The house looked like a war zone. He started forgetting basic things like milk, diapers, and putting Noah down for naps.
The laundry piled up. Ava’s teacher called me after school to ask why her assignments were late. Caleb started biting his nails and had a meltdown in the grocery store.
Derek texted me midweek, “Do we have any idea where the pediatrician’s number is?”
I came home Thursday to find Caleb eating dry cereal straight from the box while Derek scrolled aimlessly on his phone. I kept my voice even. “Derek, this is harder than you thought, isn’t it?” I said, trying to confront him gently.
He didn’t even look up. “Shut up! I don’t need a lecture from YOU.
I just need more time. Don’t act like you’re some kind of hero!”
He was unraveling, but his pride wouldn’t let him say it out loud. Week three broke him.
I came home late after covering for a co-worker. The lights were still on. The TV was playing some low-budget cartoon.
Derek was passed out on the couch in the same sweatpants he’d worn all week, surrounded by toy cars and half-folded laundry. Caleb was curled up asleep on the rug, thumb in his mouth. Noah was sticky and drowsy in his highchair.
I could smell old applesauce. Ava was in her room, hugging her doll, tears streaking down her cheeks, when I went to tuck her in. “Mommy, Daddy doesn’t listen when I need help.
He just yells.”
That was it! No yelling, no dramatic confrontation. Just a quiet, painful confirmation from my daughter that things had gone too far.
I didn’t even get a chance to tackle the issue with Derek because the next morning, I found him standing at the kitchen counter, head in his hands, coffee untouched. “Ella, please,” he whispered. “Quit your stupid job.
I can’t do this anymore. I’ll go insane. You’re better at this.
I need you back. Please.”
He didn’t bark this time. He pleaded.
And part of me wanted to wrap my arms around him and tell him it was okay. But I didn’t. I told him I’d think about it, but that afternoon, my manager called me in.
“You’re sharp, Ella,” she said. “Efficient and smart. You’ve impressed everyone here.
We’d like to offer you a full-time position with better pay and health benefits. What do you say?”
My new salary would actually be more than Derek’s! I said yes without even thinking about it.
When I came home and told Derek, the color drained from his face. “Wait,” he said. “You’re not seriously thinking of… of keeping this job?
What about the house? The kids?”
I smiled, not cruelly but firmly. “What about them, Derek?
You said it was easy. You said I was lazy.”
He stood up and jabbed a finger in the air. “Don’t you dare twist this!
You’re abandoning your family just so you can play boss lady at some pathetic office!”
But there was no thunder in his voice. It was all wind. For the next few weeks, he tried everything from tantrums to guilt trips, and even a sad bouquet of gas station roses.
But I stuck to it. I went to work, came home, spent evenings with the kids, and left the house in his hands during the day. Then something wild happened.
I got promoted again! My team lead went on maternity leave before quitting. I initially filled in, but it was so smooth that human resources offered me her post permanently!
In less than a month, I was earning way more than Derek! The man who called me a parasite was now the lower earner in the house. One night, I walked in after a late shift.
The living room was a disaster. Crumbs everywhere, toys scattered, but in the middle of it all, Derek was asleep on the couch, his head buried in a pillow. Noah was snoozing in his lap, Caleb curled beside him, drooling on him.
Ava sat nearby, braiding her doll’s hair, peaceful for the first time in days. I looked at them and felt something shift. Derek wasn’t evil.
He was proud, fragile, and clueless. But under all that, he was trying. And for the first time, he finally looked human.
I didn’t quit my job. But I adjusted. I moved back to part-time, still earned more than he did, but it gave me more time with the kids and some breathing room.
Then I laid out the new terms. “We share the house,” I told him. “We share the kids and the work.
No more lectures, ultimatums, or that king-and-servant garbage.”
He resisted at first, sulked for a few days. But eventually he gave in. And slowly, clumsily, he started to help.
Not just the performative stuff. Real help. One evening, we were folding laundry in silence.
He held up a tiny sock, shook his head, and mumbled, “I never realized how much you did. I was… wrong.”
I glanced at him. “That’s the first honest thing you’ve said in a while.”
He looked at me.
“I don’t want to lose you. Or them.”
“You won’t,” I said. “But you’ve got to keep showing up.
Not just for me. For all of us.”
It wasn’t dramatic. No fairy tale music, no triumphant montage.
Just two tired people learning how to build something better, one honest moment at a time.
