I’m Misato Inoue, 35, living with my husband Kotaro (40), our son Sosuke (6), and daughter Mashiro (1.5). Kotaro avoids responsibility, and even when I tried to discuss sharing chores after marriage, he just laughed it off and left everything to me. I gave up expecting help. Even after the kids were born, he didn’t change.
At some point, I gave up on Kotaro as a husband and decided to handle everything on my own. These days, he just shuts himself in his room after coming home and stays out of our lives. To avoid stress, I’ve treated him as just someone who happens to live in the same house. Before marriage, my love for him was at 100%, but it quickly dropped once we started living together. Still, by giving up on expectations, I managed to keep a few percent alive—until today, when even that finally dropped to zero.