“I told my husband to stop interviewing since he was going to be watching the children all summer. I told him I might allow him to start looking again in fall, not that it would do much good".

The one-two punch of her husband being thrown on the unemployment line and Cindy finding work forced a role-reversal in their marriage.

Cindy had too many responsibilities to play the supportive wife. Her life was now blossoming and the re-entry into the workforce caused Cindy to develop an improved self-image.

“My responsibilities at work just increased my sense of authority and the intellectual interaction with other adults was addictive. Also, there were men! Handsome, smart, interesting men and they were flirting with me.

My husband took me for granted and neglected me. This new attention made me feel desirable and good about myself. No way was I ever going back to being a housewife!”

At home, Cindy began demanding more from her husband.

“I complained about the way the house looked. Nothing was ever right for me. Although I was earning about what my husband had, I decided that we no longer had enough money to afford the weekly cleaning woman. He was just going to have to pick up the slack. I constantly reminded him that it was I who was saving the family from financial ruin and that he could at least keep up the home. My husband was working like mad to meet my increasingly difficult demands, doing much more than I ever did as a homemaker. He just took to it and I got very comfortable with giving him instructions. Any resistance from him was met with a sharp scolding and a reminder of his failure to be a provider.

He would back right down to me and I relished in my new power.”

When it was time for the kids to go back to school in the fall, Cindy’s husband mentioned that he was going to start his job search again. He was desperate to cease being the homemaker and he wanted to get back to the workforce.

“That was something that I could not tolerate. If he found a job, he might want to re-assert himself. He might even develop a backbone! No way, I thought. So I searched the Internet looking for ideas that would make him forget about his efforts to re-establish himself. I wanted something dramatic and decisive. I chose a strap-on dildo.”