Hey - @Stillcountingbeans
A lot of the time it goes like this:
A 20-something couple rent somewhere together, both working.
Then biology kicks in and she they think about a baby. He quite likes the idea of 'being a dad' just as much as she likes the idea of 'being a mum'.
They might think they understand the reality of nappies and lack of sleep, but actually neither of them have got a clue.
Then baby arrives and he steps up to the plate. He knows that he'll have to pay for more things, and that he now has three mouths to feed, but he accepts that he has entered into a twenty+ year commitment, so he knuckles down, works harder than ever before, goes for promotions, and just accepts that the early starts and long commutes and all that stress are worth it because he loves his family dearly.
But, this isn't good enough for mum, who sees everything through the lens of having 'lost' her career, her previous life, and resents dad, who she believes is still enjoying all those things. Obviously she still wants the nice things - house, car, holidays - that two people used to be able to afford when paying for two, but she doesn't appreciate that one person paying for three places a greater burden, both financially and psychologically, on dad ... because she's never had to. Starved of adult company, she offloads all her woes and tribulations onto him at the end of each working day, without realising that he is carrying a day's worth of stress and pressure and needs to unwind. To him, the dishwashing or the hoovering are quite possibly the least important things in the world. They row over trivial things. Life rapidly becomes unbearable for both of them.
If the baby is lucky, the parents work through it, mum appreciates what dad is doing for the family, and they stay together.
If the baby is unlucky, dad leaves.
If the baby is really unlucky, dad is driven away, and mum shacks up with a new man and this drives a wedge between the dad and his DC. But that's OK, because several hundred MN posters think it's what passes for 'therapy'.