Wife of less then a year wants a divorce.

Hi everyone,

I’m 26 and my wife is 27. At the end of December, we welcomed our baby boy. Since then, our relationship has been really strained.

We got married last July. We already knew we wanted kids, so when we found out she was pregnant, we were excited and decided to move the wedding up to June. It wasn’t easy—her first trimester was tough, and there were family issues at the same time. We went through months of arguing and not fully connecting, but we still felt in love and stayed committed.

Looking back, we almost broke up a few times, and in hindsight, maybe we rushed into marriage. I love her deeply, but the relationship has always had challenges. She brings a lot of strengths—she’s loyal, a great cook, and keeps things organized—but there are also serious issues. When she gets upset, she can yell, be very hard to communicate with, and rarely takes accountability. At times, she’s gotten physical (shoving or hitting my chest), which has been difficult to deal with. There’s also a pattern where she expects me to just “know” what she needs without clearly communicating it.

Since our son was born, things have gotten worse. The first month was hard, as expected—no sleep, lots of stress—but we were focused on the baby. Her family has been very involved and helpful, especially since they live nearby. My family has tried to help too, but they’re farther away, and she doesn’t get along with them well.

Our personalities clash a lot. I tend to be positive and forward-looking, while she often focuses on what’s wrong. I thought that might balance out, but more often it leads to conflict.

After the first month, things started to feel a bit better between us. But over the past two months, she’s started bringing up divorce more and more. Last week, she told me she wants a divorce and asked me to prepare the papers. It came from a very small situation that escalated quickly—something as simple as me not hearing her over the washing machine. Situations like that often turn into much bigger conflicts.

I don’t know what to do. If we didn’t have a child, I think I would be more open to separating. But we do, and I don’t want him growing up with divorced parents or not seeing one of us regularly. We don’t have major assets or anything complicated financially—we’re both early in our careers.

Right now, she’s suggesting we live as roommates and co-parent in the same house until she figures out next steps.

I’m stuck between trying to fight for the relationship or accepting that it may not be fixable. Any advice would be appreciated. TL DR