My Deadline

Back in January, I gave my wife an ultimatum for her to make a decision as to whether or not we should keep trying this marriage thing.  It's definitely not working for me.  I feel like persona-non-grata around the house and have been more and more vocal over the past couple of months about being treated like shit around the family. 
Weekends are always worse and have gotten to the point that I prefer being at work than at home (and good lord, work can be annoying!!!).

I wrote last week about how my wife asked me to put others ahead of myself for a change (this after a weekend in the hospital at my daughter's bedside with next-to-no sleep Friday through Monday afternoon).  I was mad about that, but kept it bottled up until this past weekend (there's that weekend theme again).

since Mother's Day was spent in the hospital, I offered to take the family out for lunch, "Mom's choice" so that we could still celebrate the day --albeit a week late.  I'd found a card at the store that reflected some of my wife's tastes and had my daughter draw a picture in it and sign her name.  I traced (very difficult to do) my son's hand in it to give it an
extra special "something."  And, since it wasn't exactly Mother's Day anymore, I wrote "Happy 'Special' Mother's Day" inside as well.  I'd also picked up the next book in a series she's reading, hoping she'd find the time to sit down, "relax," and enjoy the story.  I was a little reluctant to buy it since the last book in a different series (a Christmas present) is still collecting dust.  I thought she was interested in the series, but who knows?

Now, the obvious question here is:  Why didn't I have everything set up for Mother's Day on the actual day?  No cards or presents then?  Well.... I am a typical male, so I tend to leave things to the last minute and had planned on picking everything up on the Saturday before the
hospital thing got in the way.

But there's my wife crying.  I don't appreciate her.  I didn't do enough to show it.  I guess I should've been more inclined to go out during the week and pick up more things for her --damn my 101.9 temperature and all.

Now I was mad.  Lunch not appreciated?  Gift and card not appreciated?  What did I miss? (Honestly, I don't think I even wished MY mother a happy mother's day --I was distracted by a very sick little girl)

On Saturday night --because there's always more to the weekend, I took the family to Dairy Queen for ice cream dessert.  My daughter got an ice cream sandwich, my wife got a hot fudge sundae and I got my usual Peanut Buster Parfait.  And got to listen to my wife complain about how expensive it was the entire time I tried to eat it.

after 20 minutes, I asked her to stop and how I now regretted even thinking about treating everyone to dessert.  Especially if this is the way I'm going to be treated.  Again, try and do good, but it's not enough.

But my wife complaining about not getting enough for Mother's Day really burned me.  I recall last Father's Day I got nothing but grief because a book I'd ordered (the first in a series that I'm nearly half-way through now) had arrived and I picked it up while waiting for our lunch to arrive at Boston Pizza. 
There were no gifts for me because my wife was too busy to pick anything up.  On my birthday (when I didn't expect anything since she'd just given birth to our son), she apologized for not getting me anything but promised to make up for it --and never has (and less than 3 months to go 'til my next birthday).

So, still being treated like shit.  My wife is mad because I don't do enough for her.  And now the deadline for my ultimatum is 2 weeks away.  I suggested last night that we look into counselling.  It's either that or I'm gone.