'I have cried. I have begged. I have yelled': Couples clash over COVID-19

[Ms. Toad]

12. I was double-masking 24/7 for a while for similar reasons.

Both my spouse and my daughter interpred the need to wear masks as you don't need to around friends and family.

So my spouse was regularly in her sister's house & car (sister has a rabid anti-mask son, with whom she hangs out unmasked), and also went to eat with her office mate once a week, unmasked, at a restaurant.

My daughter was dealing with a homeless friend with mental illness (paranoid and thinks COVID is some sort of plot).

I read them both the riot act - and started wearing a mask at home that day - 24/7. Turns out my spouse was exposed by her office mate and my daughter was exposed by her friend's foster siblings within 24 hours of me reading them the riot act, so I started double masking.

As to my spouse - she promised, twice, to always wear a mask outside of the house - but when I questioned here she gaslighted me (I'm wearin a mask outside of the house . . . well I'm not wearing it in my office . . . and I'm not putting it on when I walk down to the hall to talk to my office mate . . . and, yes, we're going out to eat once a week. As to her sister - I'm wearing my mask . . . well, I'm wearing my mask until I get to the door . . . yes others of my siblings are there, but my sister isn't hanging out with her son . . . yes she is.

After we got past the 2-week quarantine, we had another heart to heart.

I told her that her behavior was putting my health at risk, and it wasn't fair to force me to wear a mask 24/7 so she could avoid wearing a mask for a couple of hours with her siblings. It probably helped that I was diagnosed with cancer right at the end of the 2-week quarantine. It shouldn't have taken the threat that I would be unable to be treated for cancer because I might have COVID and would be unable to have surgery for this aggressive tumor to get her to put up with a bit of emotional ans/or physical discomfort. But it did.