Imagine the scene.
A woman has spent all day entertaining, feeding, cleaning and tidying up after her children. She is exhausted. Her husband walks in after a day in the office and she says "Am I glad to see you, I'm so tired. They've been really hard work today."
He says "Well why don't you get a job?"
What he is doing is trying to fix the problem. What she wanted was a little bit of support and understanding.
Imagine the scene.
A man has had a tough day in the office. A promotion that he was sure would be his, has gone to someone else.
He arrives home in contemplative mood and isn't very talkative. His wife says "Did you have a good day darling."
"OK." he says with a sigh.
"Are you sure?" she says "You seem down."
"I'm fine." he says as he walks away from her upstairs.
She follows him "Is there anything I can do?"
"I'm fine." he replies with more than a note of irritation.
What she is trying to do is empathise because, correctly, she has sensed that her husband has something troubling him. What he wanted was a bit of time and space to come to terms with what happened during the day, on his own.
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