A Tale of Two Families

Once upon a time there were two families, In which the husbands were confronted with choices, The consequences of which could be condemning their wives To a lifetime of pill popping and labelling, Although neither were told that in such stark terms. Both wives freaked out with one of their babies, Both husbands were asked if they wanted their wives to be hospitalised, One said yes and one said no. One wife is now a permanently depressed and not fit for much, At home mostly by herself, Relying on copious supplies of pills, And visits from the other wife who is from the same ethnic group. And she never stops ringing the wife not on pills all hours of the day. Her husband has never come out of denial and ovoids his responsibility, Their daughter now in her twenties had barely coped throughout, And may or may not escape her Mothers fate. For a start the Mother not on pills was paid by Barnardoes, To help and support the child and Mother, But that was only temporary, And pretty soon the family was unsupported and the pill popping increased. Now the other Husband made a different decision, The family had three children, All got a high education and have jobs or about to. Admittedly the husbands were of a different nature, The one who said no was an early childcare teacher, Who could take up the slack, Including taking two of the children to work with him for a year, During the rough times. I don't regret my decision, Even though our marriage is far from perfect, Especially as we see the consequences of a a different decision most weeks. My wife is now studying And has friends and not alone to overthink and reach for her pills. But I do find it hard not to be angry with the other husband and his decision. We used to be friends but now he is too proud to even talk to me, You just can't help some people. But never mind we can can spend $50 million on a children's playground, Hundreds more on sports stadiums that most will never enter. And next to nothing on reducing pill popping as a solution to all our problems.