When Your Man Gets Upset About Money

Secret #1: The shopping bags aren’t the issue – the pressure to provide IS 

Believe it or not, under that sensitivity to spending isn’t the heart of a control freak. Most likely, those shopping bags feel like psychological lead weights … because your man feels immense pressure to provide for you, the kids, the household.  And every dollar spent is a dollar he feels he has to make up somehow. Is that a fair feeling? Maybe not. Is it likely? Very.

The truth: your husband would likely feel the pressure to provide even if you spent hardly anything.  In my surveys for For Women Only the vast majority of men said the responsibility to provide for their family was constantly pressing on them; they were never free of it. Even when expenses were low, and even when a wife made enough money to support the family all by herself, 78% of men said they still felt this constant compulsion to provide.