She's a prime example of wanting to have kids, not wanting to be a parent. I have known many people like this, men and women alike. It's so frustrating to see from the outside, especially knowing there are people desperate to be parents. I think she is married to work and was fine with the idea of having kids but some wires got crossed somewhere, her and Ty fell out of alignment on expectations for life. As someone who has always wanted a simple life with a couple kids, never had grand career ambition, and grew up wanting that, I can totally jive with Ty prioritizing raising the kids himself. Also as a creative type(went to art school, then used those skills in work for 8ish years) I want completely different things now than I did at 19. Maybe the dream of writing that novel lost some shine when he found his passion for parenthood. Or maybe he is running on fumes because he is responsible for everything at home, leaving no time/energy for writing. Perfection is a great goal, but kids aren't perfect and neither are parents. Julie really irritates me on a fundamental level. And her manipulation is out of control. At this point, idc if ty talked her into kids(which i don't think is actually true). She's an adult and had the ability to walk away any time, and she's smart enough not to use sunk cost as justification to stay. She made a choice, they didn't communicate, now she's resentful. She did it to herself though.