KIDS CAN REALLY FUCK UP A MARRIAGE is a standalone proof of concept short based on EROTIC MUSINGS OF AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE, which I've written as both a feature and a pilot.

I guess you could say this project is semi-autobiographical. There’s the obvious stuff, like the fact that I’m a married, suburban mom with two daughters. But the less-obvious, thematic stuff is more interesting, maybe because I didn’t even realize it was *my* stuff until I stepped outside of myself enough to see it. Like how you can’t find fulfillment by living up to expectations. That nobody’s “normal,” and sex is complicated, and love doesn’t conquer all. The endless struggle to be “good enough,” to be fully present as a wife and as a mother and as a friend, daughter, neighbor, and so on. And how keeping all those balls in the air is a lot harder than everybody’s happy pictures in my feed would indicate.

Being a mother isn’t actually all that rewarding. You’re not even supposed to think that, let alone say it. And you feel so horribly guilty, because you know how lucky you are to have healthy children, but you can’t help wondering what you might have achieved for yourself if they didn’t exist. (It was a relief to find out I wasn’t the only asshole who felt this way.)

Abby and David are a loving, relatable couple whose marriage is in trouble as an indirect result of ordinary things like parenting, careers, and societal expectations. Their relationship fascinates me, because the struggles they face are universal, but rarely discussed.

Kids can really fuck up a marriage. (Nobody tells you that.)