OBOSONTE

My husband is threatening to stop our children from visiting my sister because I refused to ask her to pay for his three kids from a previous relationship. He thinks that because she earns good money, covering five children instead of two shouldn’t be a problem. I’m married to Daniel. He has three children from his previous marriage, ages 14, 12, and 9. We also have two children together, ages 7 and 5. His older children stay with us every other weekend. My older sister, Melissa, and her husband, Ryan, have four children, ages 11, 8, 6, and 3. They live about an hour and a half away from us. A couple of years ago, their oldest daughter was diagnosed with a serious illness. Unfortunately, the treatment she received at their local hospital wasn’t producing the results her doctors had hoped for. They eventually transferred her care to a specialized children’s hospital more than 300 miles away. Since then, one of them has had to make that long journey with her almost every other week. It’s been exhausting for their entire family.

My wife came home after spending the evening drinking with her friends. I was already in bed with a cold and a slight fever. Nothing too serious, but I felt awful. I’d also been awake since 5 a.m. looking after our sick son, so by 11 p.m., I was completely drained. She woke me up to tell me that most of the night had been spent joking about how useless their husbands were. Trying to play along, I asked, “So, am I useless too?” She laughed and said, “Yes.”