Wait, what? Training for tri's is in the same category as cheating and porn?

I'm offended too.  I don't have affairs, and spend ALL my free time looking at porn.  That would cut into my Family Guy watching time

Saddle sores.

My wife officially named my tri bike The Mistress

That would explain the $600 for chamois cream!

It will affect your aerodynamics, I think.

It's not about triathlon, it's about the perceived time away from the family. It could be quilting, fishing, working, drinking, whatever. To someone who is not involved in that particular activity, it's ALL lumped together, deserved or not.

Naw......it's not ALL lumped together.  Try having an affair instead of training for a triathlon and let me know how that works out with your spouse.

I am pretty sure most people get that, it was still not a good choice of comparison activities from someone whose job it is to communicate ideas.

No that's exactly my point - the person who wrote that clearly does not see them as any different!

That strains the authors credibility. 

Well, like the saying goes, give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll spend his days sitting in a boat and drinking beer.

The response in Slate to the woman's letter was absolute rubbish on all fronts. 

Agreed that training and having an affair are not equal, playing video games.. and watching a program with your spouse are not equal activities either. 

Living with a spouse who watches porn every night would suck too...

I do a lot of my training early morning.. I don't like it, but I don't want to take time away from my family.  

Hmmmm....

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Define "video game junkie" My nephew wasted his high school years sitting in my brother's basement playing video games.

My other nephew flunked out of college... twice, and is a "video game junkie". 

Video game "junkies" can put in as much time gaming as one might work a full time job, and more. Some mobs can take up to 48 hours to beat.. Do you train that much?

I'll let my son participate in triathlons, but it will be a cold day in hell before I let him get Xbox live or play MMO games online while he lives in my house. 

I get why she is mad but I wonder if she every tried to play video games with him?

I have a friend who restores old cars as a hobby.  Most any night I can go over to his house and find him tinkering in his garage on his latest project.  Sometimes his kids would be out there working with him, sometimes he'd just be sitting out there reading a manual on something he was working on, but he was out there a lot.

Point being that in my opinion his wife had the right mindset.  A friend of hers asked her once if it bothered her that he spent so much home time working on those cars and she said "hell no, at least I know where he is.  He could be out at the bar all night drinking, or even worse sleeping around on me..."

Um... where to start with that one. Tinkering with a car is not the same as video/computer gaming. 

People who game casually have no problems putting down the game if they are needed. I doubt the wife would be that upset if he were "tinkering". Some of the  online MMO or Xbox live guilds require doing some kinds of online battles... that can take hours.. and often requires one to be on a head set with other members of the guild.. and requires total focus on the screen. Basically, your spouse is there, but NOT there. Only one who has been in that situation and hated it, could EVER understand. 

if he were online with virtual buddies... and buddets... for hours every night.. that could be a problem. And for some people, they end up staying up all night doing so. And it ends up affecting their work.

I'm guessing that if she's upset, I don't think her husband is just a "casual gamer". 

Might as well throw golf in there too.