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EJ711 said:
Harper,

By trying to cheer your wife up, you are not validating her feelings of isolation and depression. Wives need to have their feelings validated.

In Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus it talks about this fundamental difference between men and women. Women just want to talk to their husbands or boyfriends and have them listen. Men, when they hear their beloved women having a problem their first instinct is to want to fix it. Women just want them to listen and understand.

Has Charlotte always lived in a small town?

My husband and I have been living in a small town for going on five years, and I hate it. He loves it! It has almost ended our marriage of almost 35 years.

EJ

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As I stated before, she has some very legitimate reasons to be unhappy, and maybe I need to tell her this more often. However, I worry that validating the problems more and more, they will become harder to correct. I guess this is my problem.

And, yes, I'm constantly thinking of ways to "fix" things.

She has not always lived in a small town. For the most part, I have.

We are planning to move to a bigger city, but because we have such an outstanding daycare situation (primarly because of the trust that's built up), we want to wait until our daughter is a little older (this is Charlotte's idea, which I agree with). Our daughter is now 18 months.