My wife and I have been together for 12 years, we have 2 kids (6 and 3) and one on the way (surprised but not unwelcome). My wife is a stay at home mom and I travel for work a lot. Obviously, my wife is stressed because she feels stretched thin, and I do what I can when I’m at home, but unfortunately finding a new job isn’t possible right now. Before we had kids we adopted a dog (Leo) and we adored him.
We both took care of Leo and treated him like our own. But after our oldest came, I basically had to take care of Leo by myself. My wife was too preoccupied with our kid to feed him or take him on walks. Which, understandable but it was stressful as during that time I didn’t travel for work but I worked long hours and sometimes Leo would spend most of the day inside.
When our 3 year old was born, my wife seemed to have a better handle on juggling the kids plus our dog. Of course, I did what I could but most of the homemaking and dog caring fell on my wife since she worked inside the home. But everything seemed to be fine.
Fast forward to today, our three year old is a boy through and through. He loves Leo but he’s rough with him. His “pets” are more like hitting, he grabs Leo’s tail, and he can rough house with him. We’ve redirected our son and showed him how to treat Leo but again, he’s a 3 year old boy. So there’s going to be some issues. He seems to be getting better, but my wife doesn’t think so, and a few months ago she told me she wanted to rehome Leo.
Of course that suggestion caused arguments, there was a lot of back and forth. We all love Leo and would be devastated if he went somewhere else. But my wife is terrified that something will happen to the three year old. She says that once the newborn is here she won’t have the time to focus on redirecting our middle child, and he could go too far. I think we have time to teach our 3 year old to be gentle but she didnt agree. Its caused a large strain in our marriage and her pregnancy. Which I get but I just want us to be a happy family.
Fast forward to today, I come home from a work trip and the kids and wife greet me but not Leo. I ask my wife where he is and she said he has a new home. I think she’s joking so obviously I laugh but she sits me down and explains that she moved Leo into her parents house. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and started crying uncontrollably. My wife tried to comfort me but I yelled at her to get away from me. It’s like she gave up our kid for adoption. Eventually, after a lot of yelling and crying I left and now I’m in a hotel room. I don’t know how I could forgive my wife for a betrayal. I mean, I knew she was struggling but to get rid of our dog? How do I move on from this?