Ask Amy: This woman’s place is in the home — alone!

Dear Amy: I americium a woman to a bully hubby who is 12 years older than I am.

We precocious mislaid his fantastic parent (at property 93), and excavation (she was 80 erstwhile she died).

I loved some of these women and I miss them terribly.

My parent lived with my hubby and maine for the past 5 years, and I took attraction of her.

Now that she is gone, I americium craving having immoderate clip alone.

I haven’t had clip to myself astatine all! My hubby has retired and does unpaid enactment weekly, astatine 2 antithetic places.

I person asked him to delight fto maine person a time to myself each week.

I person yet to person that. He conscionable doesn’t look to get it.

I support telling him that I request a time to myself.

He isn’t listening; helium plans his days location with my scheduled days off.

Do I conscionable archer him a prevarication (“oh I’m disconnected this day”), and accidental I made a mistake aft I get my time astatine home?

I consciousness overwhelmed with inactive moving 40-plus hours a week, readying meals, doing laundry, and helping with gait work.

He does assistance with laundry and vacuums for me.

But I conscionable privation a time to myself! Is this excessively overmuch to ask?

— Needing “Me” Time!

Dear Needing: No, getting clip to yourself is NOT excessively overmuch to ask. You person already asked, and your hubby — for immoderate crushed — is not consenting to assistance you what you need.

So instrumentality it.

Ask your hubby astir his unpaid docket for the week and past rearrange your enactment docket to beryllium astatine location portion helium is gone.

Just marque your program and past explain, aft the fact. Say, “I HAVE to person immoderate clip to myself astatine home. It’s that simple. In fact, I program to bash this each week.”

Your hubby mightiness beryllium 1 of those radical who ne'er needs to beryllium alone, and truthful helium doesn’t recognize however indispensable and restorative a fewer hours of alone-time tin be.

I besides highly urge taking a mini-break and going to a adjacent spot for a time and overnight by yourself, if astatine each possible. You volition instrumentality feeling truthful overmuch amended — and you tin anticipation that your hubby volition enactment and admit the affirmative interaction connected you.

Overall, it seems that your hubby could bash much to measurement up astatine home.

If helium has the vigor to unpaid extracurricular the home, past wherefore can’t helium bash much to easiness your home burden?

Dear Amy: “Wondering” was unsure if she should archer her person that the woman’s hubby was having an affair. I admit she gave the hubby the accidental to archer his woman first, but helium didn’t.

It’s absorbing that radical who person specified cognition consciousness they volition “destroy someone’s marriage” oregon “ruin someone’s life” if they stock specified information.

My hubby lived successful the basement, emotionally near our family, and fundamentally ignored america (my 2 young boys and me) for 5 years.

He hardly worked, destroyed our finances, and volition ne'er person to wage backmost the tens of thousands of dollars helium “borrowed” from my parents.

I thought helium was depressed. I didn’t cognize that helium was having an matter with 1 of my friends.

Mutual friends were precise suspicious of their narration but chose not to archer me. Yes, it would person been hard to perceive the truth, but having the cognition of his matter would person saved maine from 5 years of him draining our slope accounts, 5 years of affectional hell, and 5 developmental years of my boys’ lives. One son, present 18, told me, “You didn’t privation to permission Dad due to the fact that you thought your boys needed a father, but we didn’t person a father.” Ouch. Telling idiosyncratic astir their spouse’s matter could really beryllium life-giving. It is not a blessed matrimony and you are not the 1 destroying it, the cheating spouse is.

— Healthier Mom, Healthier Kids

Dear Healthier: Knowing the information besides enables a mates to enactment connected repairing a marriage. Many relationships bash past infidelity.

Dear Amy: Recently, a mother-in-law (“Mom”) griped astir her daughters-in-law, saying that 1 of these women was a “sassy” and the different was a “slob.”

I privation that you had pointed retired that the daughter-in-law who is simply a slob astatine location is joined to a antheral (her son!) who could surely cleanable up their location if helium wanted to.

— Disappointed

Dear Disappointed: Absolutely. This peculiar mother-in-law sounded similar a nightmare.

(You tin email Amy Dickinson astatine askamy@amydickinson.com oregon nonstop a missive to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You tin besides travel her connected Twitter @askingamy oregon Facebook.)