Spousal Support

Although the topic I started was “Spousal Support”, the topic could have, and likely should have been, does your spouse have a similar interest in your hobbies (?). All the interests shared? Does s/he also like to race, ride motorcycles, go shooting, listen to music, build systems, travel the world, play golf/tennis etc. Does s/he also want a cabin in the woods and/or go hiking. Or is it enough that s/he merely accepts what you do and is happy that it brings you such pleasure without necessarily sharing the interest? In either case, perhaps the topic has been asked and answered.

In my particular case, it is enough that he accepts what I do and is happy that it brings me pleasure without sharing the interest.

E.g. I watch (and often re-watch) every episode of Doctor Who with enjoyment. He can’t stand it at all and does something else.

And it goes both ways. He will watch something with avid interest that I would never do.

It’s been like this for 36 years.

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You bring up an equal, if not more important, aspect: someone is capable of feeling joy and fulfillment vicariously from the pleasure that you derive from your interest area. S/he notes warmly that this pleases you and endorses, supports and may encourage you to pursue further simply because you seem so happy. This is, ideally, what we almost automatically feel for our children. We may want a scientist but are thrilled that the child is fulfilled by the arts, and we learn to encourage that.

I would hope she is a teacher then :rofl:

Certainly mine is a keeper too

Not sure where the specific reference to me came from…vinyl buying maybe?

My wife is tech savvy enough to figure most things out but we have a complicated system of HIFI and I try to make it as seamless as possible for her to operate. This helps a lot, but I’m still the go to for anything tech in her life.

I get a lot of flak over complexity. The other day Andrea counted the switches or clicks she had to make before she could listen to the radio:

Power amps (2)
Pre amp
Pre amp source (defaults to vinyl)
DAC
Remote to select AES input (usually selected)
iPad
Roon
Live Radio
Select Station
Play

She reminisced fondly about the radio she used to have that she could just turn on.

I think she’s got a point.

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My Wife uses the DNLA option on our Samsung TV to search for and listen to music. Music we have in common, how is a very different matter.

I like ropieee as my wife can just use roon or Spotify or airplay (lumin supports all this too) and at most she has to turn on the system 1 button or remote press for the couple of systems that are using pre’s and amps, not digiamp hats.

Yes, I think it is probably less complex to get an aircraft carrier moving than full sound from my audio system. However, that is just up in my study. I’ve got the kitchen setup down to 4-5 clicks, depending on state!

You can get away with 4-5 clicks? Anything above 2 results in rebellion at my place :-o

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I didn’t say she was happy about it!

I had our cabinets reconfigured for an enclosure to hide the components, and bought small components to fit behind the door. Now she keeps the cabinet door open so she doesn’t forget to turn them off. There’s only so much you can do…

We’ve kept the CD player which my wife uses. One click on the amp to move to CD and play on the machine.
She refuses to use anything else.

Mines looking lovingly at the Dansette Autochanger :roll_eyes:

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My wife and I first met in 6th grade. We’ve been together 50 years, married 47. She claims to love music, but never listens to anything except in her car. I installed Roon on her phone about a year ago. She’s never opened it. I probably listen to music three of four hours a day. We share a lot of common interests, but she would be happy if I played her ABBA once a month or so.

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Suggestion: tell her that you have found the true meaning of life in the lyrics of Mott The Hoople’s “All The Young Dudes”. Do not smile as she reads the print out of the lyrics but knowingly nod as though they make sense.

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