Does Your Wife Worry How You’ll React When She Shares?

I know what it’s like to take a daughter to college, and it’s not easy. So when a man shared this story with me, I could understand why his wife was acting the way she was. And it wasn’t her that needed to change; it was him.

After they dropped off their daughter for her freshman year of college, they intended to add a few days on to their drive home and do some sightseeing now that it was just the two of them. The well-meaning husband had planned it, thinking of his wife and how hard it might be for her to let their “little girl” go. But on the second day of their drive back, just when he thought it would be getting easier for his wife, she became moody and uncommunicative. He asked more than once what was wrong, and she simply said, “Nothing.” It really bothered him, to the point of a quick return home, because it was something she’d done before—after all, they had a college-age child, so they’d seen some highs and lows in marriage. It drove him crazy when she wouldn’t open up, even after he persisted. Finally, she told him that she had been upset since their first day, when he needed to take a work call that lasted two hours. She thought he was going to take the entire two days off. He explained that it was a busy time at work and she knew that. He also told her not to let that one little thing ruin their trip.

So what was really behind her hurt feelings and his frustration? Let’s look a little closer.