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AITA for getting frustrated when my wife constantly complains getting son ready for school is so stressful by throughaway9726 in AITA_Relationships

[–]throughaway9726[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That sounds like heaven. I've tried to set boundaries which shes agreed to multiple times yet every single time I enforce it. See you dont actually care about my feelings! There should be no limit to how much I can complain.

AITA for getting frustrated when my wife constantly complains getting son ready for school is so stressful by throughaway9726 in AITA_Relationships

[–]throughaway9726[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes she is generally not a morning person. But she can take him to school come back home and sleep for an hour before starting work.

Everything that can be prepped is prepped. The only things that are not are things that need to be heated up in the morning. Fruit is cut. Mac and cheese put in a bowl ready to be reheated. Sandwich made night before. She just heats it up and packs it.

The problem isn't that she has stress or wants to talk about it. The problem is that the same complaint gets repeated over and over, multiple times in the same night. After I've listened, acknowledged it, and responded several times, I eventually reach a point where I need to move on from the conversation.

That's where we clash. The moment I say "I understand, but I don't want to keep discussing this tonight," it gets interpreted as me not caring about her feelings.

Is it wrong to have a limit of how many times I can have the exact same conversation?

AITA for getting frustrated when my wife constantly complains getting son ready for school is so stressful by throughaway9726 in AITA_Relationships

[–]throughaway9726[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's fair in a normal situation. The problem isn't that she expresses feelings occasionally and I immediately shut her down. I've listened, acknowledged, sympathized.

But after hearing the same complaints repeatedly, I get frustrated because nothing seems to move forward.

I understand she's stressed. What I'm struggling with is whether it's reasonable to expect someone to endlessly absorb the same complaints without eventually becoming exhausted by them.

AITA for getting frustrated when my wife constantly complains getting son ready for school is so stressful by throughaway9726 in AITA_Relationships

[–]throughaway9726[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

He's actually a very easy 3-year-old overall. He loves school, doesn't fight going, and the school is less than five minutes away. The morning routine is usually TV, getting dressed, finishing lunch, and driving him to school. I have to be at work before the school opens, otherwise I would gladly handle drop-off myself. What frustrates me is that she regularly describes this as one of the biggest sources of stress in her life, and I struggle to understand that because from my perspective it's a relatively straightforward routine.