Heidi and Robert's marital conflict

Heidi and Robert's marital conflict is a recurring dispute over who must absorb the work of caring for a newborn, and over what it means to be present as a parent. Robert treats uninterrupted sleep and writing time as necessary conditions for his work; Heidi is left asking for practical help while also running her business. Their disagreements make private labor visible: first in tense conversations and public frustration, then in Heidi’s exhaustion, and finally in a negotiated redistribution of work and childcare.

The Unequal Terms of Family Life

Robert explains that he needs nine hours of sleep because of a sleep condition, and says that the baby is awake often at night and that he is not much help. He has urged Heidi to accept outside help, but she has refused. He describes her as someone who must do everything herself and do it perfectly, and recalls that Auden’s mother was nearly overwhelmed when Hollis was a colicky infant. The memory establishes that exhausting infant care is not new to the family, but it does not resolve the present imbalance: Robert can name Heidi’s strain while continuing to treat his own sleep as a fixed requirement.

The conflict is sharpened by the demands of work on both sides. Heidi’s business requires her attention, while Robert regards the summer as his only opportunity to work uninterrupted on his book before the academic year. He proposes a nanny or babysitter, but Heidi says she does not need full-time help, only an hour here or there. When Robert tells her to ask Auden to babysit, Heidi rejects the assumption that her daughter’s visit was arranged as a source of childcare. She wants Robert to spend time with the baby because Thisbe is his daughter and he should want to be with her. The disagreement is therefore not simply about scheduling: it concerns whether care is a shared parental responsibility or a task that can be delegated to Heidi, a paid helper, or Auden.

Conflict in Public and at Home

A family dinner becomes another test of competing obligations. Robert has stopped working early, on what he calls his best day yet, because Heidi had asked him to spend more time with her, Thisbe, and Auden. When Heidi receives repeated calls from employees who need to be paid, she says she cannot simply tell them to wait. Robert sees her inability to step away from the business as a failure to meet him halfway; Heidi insists that it is her business, just as writing is his. As Clementine’s comes into view, she tries to contain the disagreement by asking Robert and Auden to take the baby and find a table at Last Chance while she handles the interruption.

The attempt at a family meal quickly becomes a practical demonstration of the care Robert has not taken on. Twenty minutes later, as they are about to be seated, Thisbe begins fussing and escalates to screaming while the hostess brings menus. Robert rocks the stroller and looks to Auden for help; she recognizes that he expects her to step in and does so, despite finding the expectation ridiculous. The scene makes the division of labor immediate and visible: the baby’s distress is not an abstract concern, but a demand that one of the adults must answer, and Robert turns to his daughter rather than taking charge himself.

After dinner, Auden knows the argument is not over. She takes a long walk on the beach and returns by the longest route, but two hours later she hears the dispute continuing from the porch steps. Heidi’s complaint is that Robert is in the house but remains in his office, without rocking Thisbe or getting up with her. Robert answers that they discussed his need for nine hours of sleep before she became pregnant and that finishing his book is important. He again points to hiring a nanny or babysitter, while Heidi repeats that she needs only occasional time to deal with work. When he proposes that Auden fill the gap, Heidi again denies that this was why she invited her. Auden leaves rather than hear Robert continue, recognizing the painful force of Heidi’s explanation: she wants him to choose time with his baby.

Auden’s Intervention and Heidi’s Exhaustion

The conflict also changes what Auden is asked to do. During one night of sustained crying, she is alone with her thoughts after a separate, upsetting encounter and hears Heidi come down the hall to Thisbe’s room. After Thisbe has cried for an hour, Auden finds Heidi in the rocking chair, her face ragged and streaked with tears. She offers to take the baby so Heidi can rest. Heidi hesitates despite her exhaustion; only when Auden steps closer and urges her on does Heidi release a breath and let Auden take Thisbe. Auden considers a sunrise walk along the boardwalk as a possible remedy for colic, a small sign of how she has become involved in the work of soothing her sister.

Later, when Robert is considering going away, Heidi tells him she is not sure it is a good time. Auden initially keeps her back turned, but subsequently finds Heidi on the couch in the dark, silently weeping with Thisbe in her arms. The sight feels intensely private, yet Auden decides she cannot simply leave Heidi alone with it. When she reaches toward her and asks to take the baby, Heidi shakes her head and continues crying. These episodes show the cost of a household arrangement that has left Heidi depleted, as well as the unevenness of Auden’s own position: she is not responsible for the marriage, but repeatedly becomes a practical source of care when the adults’ arrangements fail.

Support, Selfhood, and a Changed Arrangement

Heidi later tells Auden that over the preceding weeks she has realized she needs time for herself, and that she has talked about it with Karen. The distinction matters: her support is not described as a sudden cure or as a change produced by Robert alone. Around this period, Auden sees Heidi hosting a gathering in the kitchen with other women, while Thisbe watches from her stroller. The bags, snacks, and turned-up salsa mark a lively social scene inside the family home, in contrast with Auden’s usual solitary evenings and her former habit of observing women’s conversation from a distance. Heidi’s renewed social presence accompanies her effort to claim time beyond work and infant care.

The conflict ends in a gradual renegotiation rather than an immediate reconciliation. Robert does not return home at once; the couple takes time and makes multiple agreements. Heidi resumes work at Clementine’s part-time, while Robert reduces his teaching to one course, giving each of them room to work and still spend time with Thisbe. On days when neither parent can be home, Karen Stock or Weymar College students provide childcare; the students’ interest in free clothes from Clementine’s is part of how that arrangement is made workable. Robert continues trying to sell his novel and starts another book, writing late at night despite sleeping fewer than nine hours. The altered schedule does not erase the conflict, but it changes its terms: care and work are no longer assigned as though Robert’s needs must remain untouched while Heidi absorbs the consequences.