| We asked readers to channel their inner Carolyn Hax and answer this question. Some of the best responses are below. Dear Carolyn: My husband and I are on different work schedules, with the result being that he gets the house to himself about three hours each afternoon during the workweek. I, on the other hand, don’t get a similar amount of “alone time.” Then, when the weekend arrives, he rarely leaves the house at all. His constant presence is driving me crazy. I love my husband, but I’m feeling increasingly bitter about the fact that I literally almost never get the house to myself. (We don’t have kids, so the possibility of getting alone time does, in fact, exist in our home.) On Saturdays, I spend a few hours running errands, visiting friends, etc., but he doesn’t have any close friends or hobbies that take him outside the home.  |  | | | I do enjoy spending time with him, but I’m also a bit of an introvert and need time to myself — without the possibility of interruption — to recharge my batteries. Preferably, I’d get this time at home, but that’s not happening. I know my husband has just as much a right to be in our house as I do, but would I be out of line in asking him to go somewhere for a few hours so that I can have time to myself? Another issue is that he’s very sensitive and tends to treat any request, no matter how delicately phrased, as a form of criticism, so I don’t know how I’d approach him about this without risking a petulant response. — Space |
