Why your man checks out and shuts down

He is feeling inadequate – which is far more painful than we recognize

You can see a better description of this perplexing reality in the previous article, but here’s a quick review. Men’s insecurity is different from ours. We women are more likely to wonder, “Am I worthy of being loved for who I am on the inside?” while men are more likely to wonder, “Am I any good at what I do on the outside?” And both feelings are far more easily triggered, and far more painful, than the opposite sex realizes.

Ladies, think of it this way. Imagine that you are having an emotional argument over breakfast with your man. He angrily says he needs to get to work, and drives away. If you’re like most women in our surveys, you have a painful feeling roiling in your gut much of the day, right? Well, that’s sort of what your man feels like when his inadequacy insecurity has been triggered; when he starts questioning whether he’s any good at what he tried to do with the kids / whether he’s capable of making that decision / whether you think he did the chore wrong.

And therefore…