Need your opinion... Does this wife owe him more?

[katyseagull]

This post is inspired by a disagreement between two of my married friends. I happen to know the husband a little better but both people are very nice individuals. (hope he doesn’t read 2+2! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])


Here’s the deal. My friend’s wife recently graduated law school. She has interviewed for several positions and has decided to take the lower paying job offer. As I understand it, this position is more like a law clerk than a lawyer. It is a govt job. She likes the people and also the hours (fewer hours than some of the other jobs she was considering). I imagine it is also less stress.

Her husband is not at all happy with the decision. Not only is he irritated that she accepted the lower paying job but now he is projecting into the future and has surmised that she will never be ambitious and will continue to be a clerk forever. My assurances that this will not happen fall on deaf ears.


Maybe it’s because I’m a girl that I tend to side with the wife. I think it’s her life and her job so she can pick whatever she wants. What’s wrong with working as a lower-paid lawyer? He says of course she can choose what she wants but he feels resentful that he spent so many years supporting her and going into debt and is disappointed with her choice. I think he feels she owes him more. I told him to chill out and to be glad she found a job and that she did really well in school. I think he should be proud of her. She is a very smart girl but like me she is a little quiet and not exactly aggressive.

My friend seems extremely pissed about the whole thing. He thinks that as a couple they agreed she would go to law school with the understanding that she would work in corporate law when she got out. I believe he feels a little defrauded or something.

What do you guys think?

How much do spouses owe each other to land that lucrative job? If one spouse works while the other goes to school, how obligated is the student spouse to find a job worthy of her mate’s standards?