Madison, WI
Quoted from Pinball-Lady:I might have a slightly different perspective as a woman who enjoys pinball and shares the hobby with my husband. I think it is very important to be supportive of each other's interests and even to try a little bit to see if there is common ground to enjoy hobbies together. Reading the op's post, I think there is a bit of blame to go around. A successful marriage (and we're at 25 years) in my opinion, has no room for berating each other in front of other people. I do have to wonder, though, whether the husband ever consulted his wife about the purchase of DILE. While I own the game and think it is a very fun game, it doesn't have nearly as much appeal as other games for those who aren't deeply into pinball. It takes a lot of skill and can be frustrating for a newbie (compared to say WOZ). Now add that it's in the middle of their shared living space. I have to wonder if they had jointly picked a game or at least gave her some major input if she would have enjoyed showing off THEIR new purchase to their friends rather than venting her frustration.
I agree that the friend thing was not good and should be addressed, and I also agree that there needs to be some self-awareness that buying 250 pound machines that cost from 5-10K does affect the other spouse. If all of the sudden my wife started to collect 5K antique sewing machines I wouldn't be super pleased to find a new one in the house (it was bad enough having four of them in the house when they were "gifts" from friends). It sounds like this whole thing could be a good chapter in your marriage in the end though as it's much better to get this stuff in the open than to have one spouse try to repress the resentment.
