Real Parenting Conversations: Last Nerve

I arrived home last night to discover that my wife had retreated to the back room. Why? Because the boys had taken Secondborn's room, which we've been valiantly attempting to clean, and torn it completely apart. Scattered things around, pulled all the clothing bins out, broken at least one of them... They hadn't actually knocked over the furniture, but it still looked like a typhoon had hit the room. When I went to investigate, I couldn't even open Secondborn's door; two of the bins were wedged between it and the shelves. It would open far enough for the boys to squeeze in and out, but I had to get Firstborn to move some things before I could come in and help them clean up.

This led to the following conversation later in the evening:

Beautiful Woman: "Thank you for seeing that the boys had done me in."

Me: "Well, the look of abject despair on your face was a big clue."

Honestly, though, I hear people talk about how they have to work on their marriage, or how marriage takes a lot of effort, and I just... I kind of disagree. Your marriage shouldn't be one of your problems. Your marriage should be where you go to get help when you have problems. (That's true for friendships, too, and if you aren't married then you ought to be able to get help from your friends when you really need it; I don't mean to imply that marriage is the only way to do this.)