how would you feel if you found out your wife was imagining your gifts as something else?

let’s say that you and your wife have been married for decades. you have a job that pays you stagnant wages, so because of inflation you are getting poorer over time, and you can’t get another job because you are disabled/uneducated/have a criminal record whatever

you gift your wife regularly, the best of what you can afford her. back a few decades ago it may have been extragavant like nice jewelry but now all you can afford is some chocolates from walmart. but your wife looks happy every time you gift her.

how would you feel if the only reason your wife was happy with the gifts was because she was imagining them to be something else? when she’s opening your box of chocolates, in her mind it’s the jewelry you gave her 30 years ago. she is not happy with the actual box of chocolates you gave her.

someone commented: “how would you know” bjt to me the reason you know doesn’t really matter. maybe she explicitly told you, maybe you read it in her diary, maybe she told a friend who revealed it to you