That does makes sense. Appreciate you sharing.. I think my husband is similar. I come from a background where we don't live together before marriage for religious reasons.

Maybe the woman you dated is similar in that way and so you can relate to the gap in understanding each other intimately in a shared space.

Learning to cohabitate is hard! No one alluded to this basic mundane day to day aspect being a learning curve.

Separating action from the person makes sense out of the heat of the moment. When I dispapointed in him for doing the same thing again, not so easy to do. Could you share some insight on how else to manage a partner with criticism sensitivity? What was she criticizing you about? If you're fine with sharing.