In defense of wives, I'll share this story -
She drives a 2013 Fiat 500, which had warped rotors. I started on the passenger side, and on the caliper there is what looked like a retaining spring for the outboard pad, but the spring didn't actually touch the pad at all. I took it off anyway, thinking it would be easy to reinstall.
I was wrong. It took at least 20 minutes to put that spring back in, so when I moved to the drivers side, I knew not to take that spring off. The brakes went on just fine until it came time to install the outboard pad. It just wouldn't seat. I couldn't get that pad to sit right. I spent at least an hour trying to compress the caliper more, and generally hating my life.
The wife came out, and asked how it was going. I told her, and she stuck her head under the wheel well, where I can't fit, and said "you have to take that metal thing off...it sticks out the other side". Sure enough, the spring isn't a spring at all - it locates the pad. Genius design. At any rate, spring off, pad in, and 20 minutes of putting the spring in.
So wives CAN help, especially if you are an idiot.