Hi joshbjoshb
I sort of get what you are going through. While my wife is doing quite well when she was for a longer period at home life for me became again more stressful. Some external structure can be really helpful.
I begged her to go to work. The options are not great, but at least they will provide her with a reason to wake up in the morning. She keeps on pushing it for 100's of reasons, some make more sense than others, but none of them makes sense when you don't actually like to stay at home, and you don't really do your children any favor by being around them.
When you beg you are controlling and that is just going to result in push-back. Even if you succeed you would be responsible for all the problems that will eventually crop up.
She is not happy. She is bored. She is not sure what to do with her time. She envies the guys having a job and all the contacts that come with it like yourself. It is tough to not having a job. It sucks to be dependent. - There is plenty to validate. It is her job to motivate herself to have a job.
Of course we can nudge once in a while, occasional limited boundary testing is only fair.
So I get phone calls at work, one after another, always complaining about the children.
And you are taking them?