Opinions on spouse behavior

This is just a funny thing I’ve noticed in reading posts here. There’s an odd dichotomy when it comes to complaints about how spouses behave; either I see people complaining about them staying home and doing “nothing” OR they’re complaining about their spouse(s) going out for the day and “abandoning their kids”. And it’s funny to me because I just… don’t get it? There’s a certain lack of suspense of disbelief to it, I suppose, because to me it’s fairly easy to extrapolate that when say, Sebastian stays in for the day, he’s working on freelance programming jobs. Or Leah works on her art projects, Elliott writes, etc. These things come up in their married dialogue! You just don’t really see them because the game isn’t really set up that when. Even before marriage, most of their hobbies are confined to events. It just takes a tiny bit of imagination.

Same with childcare! I mean, firstly, with how bland kids are on their own, is it really surprising that having someone home to take care of them isn’t a feature? And then secondly, it’s an easy leap to make to assume that hey, maybe Penny or Marnie or anyone really babysits on days when both you and your spouse are out of the house. It’s a small town! People help each other out!

Anyway, I just find it assuming when people complain about the spouses themselves for these things like it’s some great character flaw and it’s their fault when it’s just. A limitation of the game they exist in.