Does this sound unreasonable to you?

Ralph works hard for the money. He works hard for it, honey. So, I try to treat him right.

He is one of the owners of his company. They have tons of work right now, and IMHO, not enough staff to do it all. Therefore, Ralph works a lot of hours. He usually doesn’t get home before 7:00 (Tuesday it was after 10), but he often tries to get home in time to see The Bug before he goes to bed. Then he works in his home office until all hours, but that is another story.

Since The Bug was born, I have had only 1 request. I would like Ralph to call before 7:30, so I can plan my evening. If I know he is coming home soon, I might wait to eat dinner with him, or I might keep The Bug up a little past his bedtime so he can get a night night story from Daddy. On the other hand, if he isn’t going to be home, I’ll eat when I want and I’ll put The Bug to bed on time.

I don’t think that it is such an out-of-line request. He gets into work before 9 on his latest day, so, I think he could stop whatever he is doing 10 hours later to call his family for 5 minutes. Even if he had an employee in his office, he could say, “I just need to take a minute to let my wife know that I won’t be home for dinner.” Not that tough.

But, it is a huge point of contention, because he often forgets to call, or, like Tuesday, he says he’ll be home at one time (he said he was leaving ‘soon’ when I called at 7:30) but then gets home significantly later (walked in around 10:30). I try to understand the stress that he is under and not be a naggy bitch (my words, not his), but it just bugs the shit out of me.

Ralph doesn’t mind if I call him, but I feel as if I’m disturbing his work. I’d rather he call when he has a break, or when he realizes that he’s going to be longer than he’d anticipated. Ralph thinks that I am being unreasonable, do you think this is an unreasonable expectation?