I [30M] think my wife [28F] is in denial that her dream is not working out and its time for me to stop funding it. Trying to find the gentlest way to convince her.

My wife Erin (together four years, married for two) really loves designing clothes. She got a degree in fashion design and even lived in NYC for a year helping put together costumes for broadway. So she's not a hack by any means.

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When we met she was working for a super high-end clothing line I had never heard of, but Erin had a dream of going out on her own and opening some little boutique place where she could design clothing and sell it.

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After we got married a couple years ago we moved states, and she decided that was her time to follow her dreams. And I encouraged her at that point because I made enough to support us anyway, so it was pretty risk-free.

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I don't know a whole lot about fashion or running a business, so I stayed pretty hands-off for the most part.

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Erin never did get around to getting a store-front, thankfully, but she started making clothes in our apartment and set up a whole web site and everything for it.

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Anyway, we are now 20 or so months into this venture. Every couple months she has needed to ask for money for materials, website stuff, marketing, etc. She always promises she is about to turn the corner and surely if I can just help her keep it going for another month or two then her little fashion line will take off and become self-sustaining.

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I've always been happy enough to give her money. I could afford it and I figured if it made her happy then it was money well-spent. Unfortunately Erin's clothes just aren't selling. Our apartment is full of clothes she has made but hasn't been able to sell. I know it hurts her for them to just be sitting around because she puts a lot of love into each one. She manages to sell a few things here and there, but the amount she has made from each item wasn't even enough to cover the costs of making it.

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Lately her big promise has been that she just needs to ride through COVID, because that is surely the reason no one is buying her clothes, and if she just makes it through then she'll start making a profit and will get her store-front and it will all be fine.

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But fortunes have changed and I can't afford to keep funding it the way I have been. So unfortunately I'm going to have to tell her when she runs through what she has now, she's just out of luck.

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It hurts to say that because she is very talented and I honestly do love the clothes she makes, and she looks so happy when she is designing her clothes, but for whatever reason they just weren't selling and we can't keep it going.

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Erin seems in denial about it though and I don't think she will be able to accept that very easily.

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I've burned through 2 or 3 dreams in my life so I know it really, really sucks when you hit that point that you realize something you really, really want just isn't going to pan out.

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What is the kindest way to let her know I can't fund her anymore and get her to accept that the world just wasn't ready for her little fashion line?

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And how can I get her to see that she isn't being a failure by throwing in the towel at this point?

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Any advice is very welcome.

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TL;DR: I've been funding my wife's attempt to start a clothing line. Almost two years in and it just isn't sustainable. How to tell her I can't fund her anymore and it is time to move onto something else?

Submitted September 22, 2020 at 02:22PM by Both-Screen-5591 https://ift.tt/2ZXJ9na