How hurt you feel by your experiences with your wife is communicated so clearly in what you’ve written. I wish you’d let your wife READ your post. She might not realize the depth of your hurt.

Sometimes I feel like my husband doesn’t want a wife, he wants a mother. I feel taken for granted and used. I feel like I’m here to serve a function for him, and not because he cherishes me, has an emotionally intimate connection to or can’t live without ME, y’know?

We’re 45 and married 26 years. I know I find myself longing for the kinds of relationships or connection I’ve seen in movies. Then I feel ridiculous because on some level I know that’s not a real depiction of what love is lived like. But I want to feel loved, admired, desired and taken care of like I’m special. I see you want the same. I don’t know why some people are so good at giving those things, while others are so...not.

Let her read the post and replies. If her heart doesn’t break at what you’ve written, you need to rethink your willingness to live like this. YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED.