My wife isn't a programmer, but understands some of the stuff I do at a high level. I think that it makes conversations much more efficient. I can come home bummed out a little, she asks "what's wrong?", and I tell her that my code keeps crashing, or that I can't get some library to build, etc - and she gets it - end of conversation about that. It also helps out when I have to put in extra hours to get some stuff done ... she knows that this work can sometimes require a great amount of effort.