Bob stormed into his workshop, picked up a piece of wood from his workbench, and hurled it into a pile of scrap in the corner. He and Peggy had just had another fight. He was so sick of it and so unhappy. He thought about getting in his pickup and driving away once and for all. But then he thought of 14-year-old Amy and 16-year-old Marcie.
Bob worked hard--sometimes 60 hours a week. He had built the house they lived in, as well as the barn for the purebred quarterhorses they raised. He had tried to give Peggy and the girls a comfortable, trouble-free life. But Peggy had become distant and unappreciative of what he was trying to do. When they tried to talk, it was like they were speaking two different languages.
Sometimes the girls
didn't help matters. Bob had forgotten how much his own dad had done for
him--and how little he as a young person had appreciated his own parents--until
Amy and Marcie had become almost as hard to live with as Peggy. Daddy's little
girls were turning into demanding, ungrateful teenagers.
Bob was not one to analyze his feelings. He had always pushed them aside so he could concentrate on the work that had to be done. But now he could ignore them no longer. "Is this all marriage amounts to," he wondered, "being lonely and angry and frustrated and disappointed? I feel so empty."
Sandy and Dave had been married less than 10 years, and she was exhausted. Dave had gone from job to job, never quite finding "people who appreciate what I have to offer." He had wanted a family right away, and Sandy just learned that number three was on the way. The news scrambled her emotions. She would love to have another child--but not now. They just couldn't afford it.
It had been too easy
for Dave to buy things he wanted for himself--after they had purchased a little
too much house and a little too much car. Sandy was working as much as she
could, but the more she earned the more Dave spent. He seldom mowed the lawn,
the dryer needed repair, and the window in the basement was still broken.
Her parents helped some, but Sandy hated to ask for more unless it was really necessary. If Dave would only keep his promise to find a regular job and develop financial responsibility. Oh, she had talked to him. And he had made such sincere promises--promises that he just never kept.
Now another baby was on the way. Sandy felt trapped and miserable. Ten years ago when she stood at the altar and exchanged vows with Dave, she never imagined it would be like this!
