- Jim works full time while Thea is a stay-at-home mom. He wants
her to be more organized about running the house--to clean it more,
and to do a better job of planning the mornings so the kids get to
school on time. He acts smug and superior to her and gives her the
sense that the disorganization in their house is due to a character flaw
she has. She feels attacked and gets defensive whenever he raises the
subject. She says their house is supposed to be a home, not an army
barracks, and that he needs to relax about these issues because his
demands are unreasonable. They have been arguing about this for
four years.
Solvable Perpetual
- Whenever Brian and Allyssa have a disagreement, he quickly
raises his voice. Allyssa feels intense stress when he yells and tells
him to stop. Brian says he doesn't see anything wrong with yelling
when he's upset. Allyssa starts to cry and tells him she can't take it.
So they find themselves fighting over his yelling rather than
whatever issue they disagreed about.
Solvable Perpetual
- Ever since their baby was born, Kurt has felt that Irene is squeezing
him out of her life. She insists on doing all of the child care herself
and doesn't seem to have time for him anymore. She has been
thinking a lot about her own childhood. (Her parents divorced when
she was two and she was shuffled between relatives' homes for
years.) She tells Kurt she doesn't want their son Brendan to feel
abandoned by her, as she did by her own mother. But Kurt feels
betrayed because one of the things he's always loved about
Irene is how nurturing and motherly she is toward him. Now that's
all being directed at the baby, and he feels cheated.
Solvable Perpetual
- Oscar just inherited $5,000 from his great-aunt. He wants to use it
to buy home exercise equipment. But Mary thinks they should save it