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I want him to be content. How do I do this?

Instead of letting things jumbling up into a tighter knot in my mind, let's just jot what are weighing my mind down.

The problem of our marriage is a combined set of several problem sets.
My husband's:
  • Asperger
  • Foreigner
  • International marriage
  • Moving to a foreign land
  • Moving to wife's country (opposite of the usual norm, where wife follows the husband)
  • Multi-language land: 3 languages needed
  • 1 language (English; we're non-English) for securing job/conversation, 1 other language for daily conversation, 1 other language for daily religious purpose
  • Adapting with new place where he needs to drive to go anywhere (opposite to what he likes & used to: everything was in walking distance in his previous place)
  • Nothing interesting in walking distance
  • Unemployment
  • No job prospect in his specialization (he has a good job & many offers in his developed country)
  • Living in (moving to) a less-developed country now compared to his country
  • No interest in other job prospect here
  • Not much skills in other job prospect here (which requires social skills, business thinking, etc)
  • Difficulty in enhancing his specialization skills here
  • This country has lack of expertise in his specialization here, no team
  • Adapting to lower-level of (un)employment and living
  • Fear of moving back to his original country after leaving it for almost 2 years
  • Shackled by wife's location
  • Lost grand opportunities in job and social life because of moving here
  • Lost sense/meaning of life because of no interesting research jobs here
  • Boring because of no interesting research jobs here
  • No interest in enrolling in the english class (for job); must be one-to-one
  • Expensive if wants to fulfil his lifestyle (although he doesn't ask for it..)
  • Stuttering (big problem for him. it starts after several months ~ a year he moved here)

My problems:
  • Less than normal, maybe asperger too
  • Lack skills in housewiving
  • Shackled by location due to sponsorship bond
  • Quick to argue (like a NOT gate, when i just wanted to propose another opinion)
  • Lazy
  • Difficult to wake up in morning
  • Wanting husband's involvement in many things - driving, groceries, financial planning
  • Wanting husband to decide many things, but cant trust husband's shallow-like judgement
  • Bad cooking
  • Struggling to meet work performance
  • Struggling to start research with husband
  • Cant be a guide to guide husband
  • Always complaining
  • Worrying too much about husband; control freak
  • Want husband to be happy always automatically without me having to work for it
To not feel guilty and regret too much, to appreciate husband's decision to move & live here, let's list down the good things husband has acquired after moving here:
  • He has become more religious in good ways
  • He always go to pray together with others at prayer house
  • He learnt how to read & write 1 language
  • He always memorize the incantations in the language
  • He learnt some words and phrases in my language
  • He always practice reading in english to make his speech more fluent
  • He had some chances to lead the prayer
  • He does much more housework daily/weekly compared to when he was in his country before
  • He puts away garbage
  • He takes care of our half-pet cat, always feed him
  • He loves the cat
  • He washes his dishes, and ours too always/sometimes
  • He volunteered to taught sharing sessions with the lab students
  • He managed to focus on his big research publication
  • He managed to eat permissible food everyday

My main concern now is:
How to increase his self-esteem?
Since he does not work now. But he still do some research work by himself at the lab.

He does a bit of housework (putting away garbage, taking care of the cat, mosquito repellent, driving me, waking me up in the morning lol, buying us breakfast in weekends, buying me dinner when i'm not well).

Seems like he's killing himself inside when choosing to live here = sacrificing his career; or am I just paranoid? Maybe he do feel like that, but he's trying his best to like this choice. But i'm always feeling guilty and double-guessing his choice to live here. Since he doesn't care that he doesn't get salary - he did care, but I think he gave up because he's not interested in working in this country (no suitable job for his specialization). I don't want him to sacrifice like that. Now he fears to go back to his country - I feel guilty for him sacrificing his career.

I want him to be content. How do I do this?
How to increase his self-esteem, when he's uninterested in my advice?


Perhaps I just need to encourage what he's doing now.

Like, he's practicing English & the religious memorization. He volunteered to conduct sharing sessions sharing his research knowledge, although he's not fluent and stuttering. He does some housework. He takes care of the cat.

He accepts my flaws. I should remember that it is much more difficult for a foreign spouse; other foreign spouse also feel the same (similar) as him; so I should not blame him for not progressing much. He has progressed so much actually.

And perhaps I can just encourage what he decides to do.
Instead of babbling my other opinion.

Actually I just realize that I want him to be content, instead of happy (which is difficult to achieve for Aspergers I believe), when I wrote this blog.

But how do I need to react when he says he's boring??
Stay calm. Lol.

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Author
BlueSky Aozora
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