I’m Sae, and I live with my husband, Mutsuki, and our elementary school kids. Mutsuki is self-employed and works from a room at home. I work corporate at a major company, where I’ve been steadily building my career. Being able to work full-time is largely thanks to my husband being at home. That said, he isn’t the most attentive guy, and I definitely feel like I carry a bigger share of the chores and parenting… Even so, I figured the four of us would just keep living our peaceful lives together.
In our household, I shoulder more of the burden than my husband when it comes to both finances and chores. Some people might think dual-income couples should split everything 50/50, but I’ve always felt that whoever can do it should just do it, so it never really bothered me.My husband and I have never talked about our incomes in detail. As long as he covers the rent and has fun playing with the kids, that was enough for me.
But one day, in the middle of our peaceful routine, we got word that my father-in-law was going into a senior living facility.