A wife's story was introduced, in which she appealed about financial problems, stating that she has not received living expenses from her husband for over a year.
On the episode of tvN STORY's "Lee Ho-sun Counseling Office" aired on the 10th, a couple struggling with financial conflicts appeared.
On the day's broadcast, the wife who applied to share her story revealed, "My husband is not giving me living expenses. Even after surgery, he went back to work immediately the following week. Since our early married life, I have been struggling alone with worries, and he says, 'If we don't have money, we just have to live without it.' I realized that his sense of economic responsibility as a father is low. Due to financial stress with my husband, I developed circular alopecia."
She then said, "Until now, I pretended to be fine and lived, but now I feel like I am about to collapse."
The wife revealed that she is a 49-year-old English teacher and her husband works at a non-governmental organization (NGO). The couple said they have a 21-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son.
The wife revealed, "I was an academy instructor since our early married life, and I earned more than my husband. My husband changed jobs to an NGO, which paid very little." She continued, "After having children, I felt very sorry. While raising them, I thought, 'If parents are not capable economically, they inevitably feel guilty toward their children.' When they were sick or when I couldn't provide even the minimum necessities. There have been times when I couldn't buy things they wanted to eat."
She shared a painful incident, saying, "One day, my eldest child said he wanted to eat tangerines, but I only had 2,900 won in my wallet. A bag of tangerines cost 5,000 won. I came home without eating them, and it just so happened that my husband bought a box of tangerines for the children at the welfare center that day. Tears came to my eyes. I felt pathetic toward my child and thought I was irresponsible."
The wife stated, "Currently, my husband is not giving me living expenses," and confessed, "It has been over a year. We are living by earning in one month and spending it all in that same month," shocking everyone. She revealed, "I underwent thyroid cancer surgery in 2019. At that time too, I was discharged immediately after surgery and went straight to work," explaining that she left the hospital early due to money issues.
She continued, "When I gave birth to my first child, it was a very difficult labor. I endured contractions for 24 and a half hours. I almost screamed, 'Let me have surgery!' but my husband was looking at distant mountains. Because natural birth is cheaper."
However, the husband had purchased an electric vehicle he had wanted in this situation, drawing sighs of dismay.
The wife said, "My husband is always an early adopter. He likes electric vehicles, so he bought one," shocking the audience. She added, "So I have to work part-time to pay off that debt," drawing further sighs.
The wife also shared, "In the past, I jokingly talked about neighbors with high salaries and husbands who earn well. When I said, 'If we earned a lot, we would have saved a lot,' my husband said, 'If we had earned a lot, there would be even less money.' He said that if he earned that much, he would probably buy everything he wanted and have even less money," leaving the cast puzzled.
Lee Ho-sun asked, "Is this supposed to be comfort?" looking bewildered, while Jang Young-ran was shocked, saying, "That's a backhanded compliment."
The wife was upset comparing herself to her relatively financially comfortable identical twin sister. She revealed, "My sister has one child and my brother-in-law works at a large corporation, so they have no major financial difficulties. My sister sometimes says, 'Sister, you seem quite serious.'"
She continued, "My nephew entered the medical school of an SKY university as the top student. Our daughter also wanted to go to pharmacy school in her senior year of high school. Because I couldn't support her, she had no tutoring other than math and retake exams because she wanted to go to pharmacy school. During her retake year, I didn't even provide 10 won for an academy. She studied alone at home," expressing her distress.
The wife also confessed that her husband showed irresponsible behavior both economically and in educating their children.
She revealed, "My son has been playing games since elementary school, but one day while I was working, the school teacher called to say the child hadn't come. He had played games all night and couldn't get up. I am not a widow, right? Since I have a husband, I wanted to consult with him, but my husband said, 'I don't know.' My husband does not think (his son's) dropping out is serious either. There are parts where our views on education do not match."
The wife mentioned that even during their dating period, she covered various expenses and had said, "It's okay, I can pay for it. It's fine to live in a one-room apartment," but she shed tears saying, "I married him because I liked him, thinking we would be happy forever, but I cannot accept myself acting like a double personality economically. I feel the thought, 'You married me because you liked me.'"
On the other hand, the husband said, "(In my wife's words) there seems to be bias and distortion," and stated, "It is not that I never gave any salary at all. There has never been a time when I didn't receive a salary or worked without pay. It is true that I have received less than a typical salary."
He continued regarding the electric vehicle, "It was a used car, so I took out a used car loan in my name and am honestly working to repay it. I have never caused problems at home." He added, "My wife repeatedly found jobs and then quit. Each time, I said, 'I will take care of the children, so work as much as you want and quit if you need to.'"
Regarding the son's issue, he explained, "I talked with my son, and he said he wanted to become a game streamer."
Regarding the wife comparing herself to her twin sister, he said, "I know she is upset, but it is not something that can be resolved by comparing oneself to others; I think one should make their own path."
in ENTERTAINMENT
