I’m so tired of their constant accusations of gaslighting and narcissism as if they were victims of such horrible abuse. I’m not even allowed to disagree on something or there is hell to pay and I’m a gaslighter. I’ve literally never felt safe sharing feelings because it felt like I was loading a gun pointed directly at me. Men are typically pretty simple, give us a safe, non judgmental place to communicate and you’ll get more conversation than you can imagine. Try to control us and tear us down so you can feel right or superior and many of us will walk away in our minds over time. Congratulations you won the battle but lost the war. We will literally do anything for you, but if you don’t give us safety, you won’t get emotional connection from us. We’ll stay because we feel obligated to providing for you and the family and we love our kids. Don’t pretend you are parenting us. Let us make simple mistakes as the desire for us to make it up to you will be immense and we’ll learn from that experience. There may also be a funny story to tell later. Not everything is meant to be perfect and if your force perfection eventually nothing will be natural or authentic