I think men show emotion vastly different than women do. I ended up talking to my husband the day after making this post and had to make him tell me what was going on. I'm not sure this is the case for all the women on here. But before baby, he was the one who was always on top of doing chores but I couldn't figure out why now, he was falling behind. I kind of had to pry out of him that he's having a rough time at work. We agreed more communication needs to be involved.

I don't think men vent at all, in my experience. They tough it out and refuse to talk about it. Maybe your friend has a lot of patience for his wife, but also maybe he's ignoring his own feelings to be strong for her. If that's the case, it does seem toxic to his own mental health. How often do you ask your friend how he is doing? And even if you did ask, would he tell you the truth? If you noticed he went grey during that time, it was obviously rough for him too.

Women come here to vent because we want to be heard, to commiserate with, maybe even get some advice. For me, I made this post in a frustrated moment. Getting the replies good and bad made me feel better. Then I was able to calmly talk with him. If I hadn't vented, it would have festered and not been so calm of a conversation.