The litany of complaints comes easily to her lips; she’s told this story before. Brad drank too much. He didn’t pick up after himself. He always forgot birthdays. But after a few more jabs, Gayle exhausts herself, and her face softens. “Brad loves his kids. On weekends he would lie on the couch for hours, with little Kaitlyn sound asleep across his lap, the drool just sliding all over his shirt and he never even minded. How could you hate a man like that?” After more than a decade of marriage, their life together began to unravel. “They outsourced Brad’s job at the distribution center. No severance. Nothing.” Gayle was working hard, too tired to be very supportive. She dismissed Brad’s mood swings as nothing more than “a male ego type thing.” But then Brad started disappearing, spending his days and then nights away from home. The anger bubbles up again as Gayle recalls, “Money that was allotted for day care started disappearing.” After a few months, Brad found a new job and his dark moods lifted, but the damage was done.
What do You think about The Two-Income Trap (2010)?
