Reason 17...

One of the classical jobs of a husband is to provide for his family. To make sure his kids are fed, clothed and most importantly loved. The same goes for his wife. I like to think that I'm a pretty good provider. My dad used to call himself jokingly the "Mr. Provider" especially whenever he'd do something small and we would thank him for it. I generally model my parenting/husbanding after my dad. I'm not sure my wife appreciates that all the time, but one of the things I think my dad did was to make sure we never knew there was anything wrong. I very rarely had a feeling like we were poor or didn't have a lot of money. I try to keep that the same for my family. When I know money is tight or we need to reel in our spending, my wife understands that and knows everything will be ok. That puts an enormous amount of stress on the "provider", but I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. My wife makes much of that "providing" possible, regardless of how she feels about not working or making money.And I know this isn't all about money, it's about the various other things we worry about. But in the end, everything IS going to be OK. Because we love each other. That's, cliche-ly, all that genuinely matters.