There's small children involved, you have to coordinate that kind of thing.

Yes, and somehow commuting week after week is so much better than having a conversation with your wife. It's not like the kids just stop existing when you're commuting. The solution is there, but it can't be used unless you're suffering.

You misread. It doesn't occur to me to "ask for a break" in the moment with the kids, so the commute is a nice forcing function.

I feel like this is a 100% shared experience for people in actual families vs people looking in from the outside trying to interpret.

No, I think the other posts in the thread show that the experience is not universal.

I feel like many of the posts are like hypothetical "if I had a wife and kids this is what I would tell her" - hard to tell if any of these people are actual parents.

You got kids, exe34?

Oh yes, everything changes when you have kids. You can't negotiate with your wife, you need to trap her into doing what you want.

Got it - you are having a hypothetical conversation here.

It reminds me of the movie the 49 year old virgin where the title character is asked what breasts feel like and he guesses bags of sand. And of course because it's hypothecal to him he can't tell how ridiculous that actually is.

I'll keep an eye out for you in the next thread on the male loneliness epidemic.