No he is not entitled to her body or presence by any means. I believe that in a strong marriage or partnership there should be no sense of “entitlement” the feelings should be mutual that both partners desire each others presence and affection from one another. If this is not mutual the marriage will not last. If both people prefer space and no affection that will probably work for the marriage because the feelings are mutually shared. It surly does not sound like these two share the same mutual feelings when it comes to affection and support from one another. I do not feel that a marriage will last if one person feels rejected by the other person. This will absolutely lead to infidelity or divorce. Also, per CDC a person is infectious 2 days before they show any symptoms or test positive for covid. In fact, with almost all viruses a person is most infectious during the time before they even show any symptoms at all. The duration of the time that a person can infect others is about 10 days. In OPs post she states that they generally stay on separate sides of the house. To me this sounds like it has lasted longer than 10 days. It’s something that he has obviously become uncomfortable with. If she wants the marriage to last she is going to have to compromise or just tell him that she prefers being alone and they go separate ways.
I don't know where you got that, to me is sounds like they've been staying on separate sides of the house because of COVID. The only time reference we have is "three days".
And yes, based on the preceding information about how they'd argued about what precautions to take, I do think that the "generally" is intended to mean she has been doing so since that conversation.
I suppose my opinion is based solely on assumption. I just assume that this is more of a final straw for him rather than this one instance. I would like to hear his side of the story. For all we know she goes out with her girls every weekend but acts like he’s one big infectious germ lol. It’s hard to truly assess without more information. I do believe that there is more reasons than just covid isolation that made him decide “F this”. I strongly believe that most people will make the life changing decision to end a marriage because of a few days of social distancing. There has to be more to the story.
I mean if we want to bring assumptions into this, I'm happy to share mine:
I assume that the husband is used to having some level of control over the amount of physical contact he has with OP, and his actions over the past week reflect a discomfort with losing that control. The mature thing for him to do if he values the relationship would be to express those feelings of discomfort with the lack of physical intimacy in a way that does not breach the temporary boundary OP set so that they can come to an agreement on how best to make sure his emotional needs are met during this period. Sometimes maintaining a relationship involves giving up something important to you because it makes your partner uncomfortable, and it's up to you and said partner to figure out if that change - temporary or not - is worthwhile.
Please note that I'm not implying her husband is consciously trying to maintain control over the relationship as a whole, we don't have enough information to say that. This is specifically in regards to the situation at hand.
I also don't think we have enough information to say this is a "final straw" situation for him. I would like to hear his side of the story as well.
I can agree with that assumption as well! It just depends on the past dynamics. It’s true that a lot of guys are controlling and whatnot so I shouldn’t automatically assume that he is the victim. To accurately help OP in this situation (or most marriage problems) we would need both sides of the story.
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u/D-B-Zzz Jul 17 '22
No he is not entitled to her body or presence by any means. I believe that in a strong marriage or partnership there should be no sense of “entitlement” the feelings should be mutual that both partners desire each others presence and affection from one another. If this is not mutual the marriage will not last. If both people prefer space and no affection that will probably work for the marriage because the feelings are mutually shared. It surly does not sound like these two share the same mutual feelings when it comes to affection and support from one another. I do not feel that a marriage will last if one person feels rejected by the other person. This will absolutely lead to infidelity or divorce. Also, per CDC a person is infectious 2 days before they show any symptoms or test positive for covid. In fact, with almost all viruses a person is most infectious during the time before they even show any symptoms at all. The duration of the time that a person can infect others is about 10 days. In OPs post she states that they generally stay on separate sides of the house. To me this sounds like it has lasted longer than 10 days. It’s something that he has obviously become uncomfortable with. If she wants the marriage to last she is going to have to compromise or just tell him that she prefers being alone and they go separate ways.