I came here to make this comment. I completely sympathized (and still do) for his position - but the luxury of something like "Not working for someone else" is the first to go when you are in dire straits. If you have debt, a home, and people who count on you, you take whatever work you can find. I'd call up Chuck E. Cheese and see if I could get my first job back before I would decide to just fail on my responsibilities.
When your luck is down, the room for luxury is low. "Not working for someone else" is a ridiculously large one, and your wife is not in the wrong for thinking similarly.
Still, to be constructive: Consider work that can sustain your responsibilities, albeit at a non-optimal rate. You founded a startup, a task that requires endlessly marketable skills in a growing field. It ended, and perhaps it ended poorly - but you can, and will, endure.
When your luck is down, the room for luxury is low. "Not working for someone else" is a ridiculously large one, and your wife is not in the wrong for thinking similarly.
Still, to be constructive: Consider work that can sustain your responsibilities, albeit at a non-optimal rate. You founded a startup, a task that requires endlessly marketable skills in a growing field. It ended, and perhaps it ended poorly - but you can, and will, endure.