I have. I don't do it well. I get angry quickly because a lot comes out.

I feel like I have been waiting my turn for emotional validation for a long time. I'm like a starving person. I don't just need validation, I need a lot of validation.

When I've told her that, she told me to address it with a therapist, that she's done all she's going to do.

The thing is, for her, she is still very vulnerable. She definitely has done some things to hear me and emotionally validate things we've gone through, she really has, BUT to do that very much means she has to face the effect her physical and mental illness had on me and the kids.

She wants a new life and a chance to re-connect with old friends, and I see these other people seeing and getting the best of her energy. She wants to shed all this negativity and pain.

Meanwhile, I'm starving for her to say I did a good job, that I looked after all of us, I literally kept us going and kept us alive, I took on new job roles during COVID shutdowns to keep us afloat and maintain income security for us, I maintained our home, made meals, looked after her.

And to her new circle of friends, I know I look like an *****, a bitter, cranky distant husband who isn't taking part in his wife's new found health. They have no idea how much I've done and carried, and for how long. They don't know how her pain and frustration was taken out on the kids at times, and how I intervened. I never made her look bad to the kids. I tried to validate them, and care for them and hug them and love them, and try to explain to them how much pain mom is in.