Anonymous wrote:I’m so so tired of it. Most of his communication toward me is snapping at me. He feels justified doing it because he’s stressed, or trying to get out the door, or I’m doing something not to his liking.
It’s killing our marriage. I don’t feel the same way about him as I used to. We’ve tried therapy. It didn’t help. We have young kids so don’t want to jump to divorce. But how normal disposition toward me is usually nasty. What would you all do in my situation?
You need an individual therapist. You need to be talking about how to set boundaries, how to emotionally self-regulate, how to educate your kids that nasty/irritable behavior is not acceptable, and whether to encourage your DH to get psychiatrically evaluated because irritability can be a sign of depression. You will also need ongoing guidance and structure to get yourself in a position to divorce -- career goals, making your young kids independent and able to self-advocate in an age appropriate way, visiting an divorce attorney, etc.
You may not want to divorce with young kids, but they are learning from you every minute of the day that it is OK for others to treat them in exactly the same way that your DH is treating you.
FWIW, I left when my kids were 18 mos. and 5 yo because I didn't want them to grow up into their own abusive relationships. (and that's what you describe -- verbal/emotional abuse) As they grew through the years, the fact that I left their dad and clearly did not tolerate nor perform that kind of verbal denigration and blame-casting enabled them to pick/reject appropriate, healthy friends and lovers.