I remembered nodding along at the time, confident it wouldn’t apply to us, certain Ryan’s steady presence through the treatments meant he’d remain just as steady once the real work of parenting actually began.
I was wrong about that, though it took me nearly six months to fully admit it to myself.
Before the babies were born, we agreed that I’d leave my job and stay home to care for them.
But once they arrived, I found myself doing absolutely everything on my own.
Even after an incredibly difficult delivery, I was back cooking, cleaning, and caring for three newborns almost as soon as I came home from the hospital.
Ryan, meanwhile, insisted that because he had a job, housework wasn’t his responsibility.
He’d say it casually, almost cheerfully, as though he were stating an obvious fact rather than defending an arrangement that left me handling nearly every waking hour of three infants’ care by myself.
Whenever I asked for help, he’d shrug and say,
I remembered nodding along at the time, confident it wouldn’t apply to us, certain Ryan’s steady presence through the treatments meant he’d remain just as steady once the real work of parenting actually began.
I was wrong about that, though it took me nearly six months to fully admit it to myself.
Before the babies were born, we agreed that I’d leave my job and stay home to care for them.
But once they arrived, I found myself doing absolutely everything on my own.
Even after an incredibly difficult delivery, I was back cooking, cleaning, and caring for three newborns almost as soon as I came home from the hospital.
Ryan, meanwhile, insisted that because he had a job, housework wasn’t his responsibility.
He’d say it casually, almost cheerfully, as though he were stating an obvious fact rather than defending an arrangement that left me handling nearly every waking hour of three infants’ care by myself.
Whenever I asked for help, he’d shrug and say,
