I saw a tweet recently that made me think;

For over 30 years I came home from work and answered the question “How was your day?” with “oh pretty quiet, nothing much, you know”. This was clearly a lie. The only day I didn’t get away with it was when I was delivered home by my friends, colleagues, workmates having been overcome by smoke whilst searching a burning flat during the Firemen’s Strike one Boxing Day morning. To say that I was pissed off missing out on that Double Time overtime was an understatement. 
I suspect that Mrs Angry already knew, but it was obvious that day, that things weren’t always “pretty quiet, you know”. I had taken the decision NOT to share my daily experiences with my family as I thought I was doing them a favour not burdening them with the knowledge of how my day had really been.

I genuinely thought that it was only me that did that.  My colleagues’ wives and families always seemed to know stuff, although who knows what they were told.

The downside to this was that I didn’t get the benefit of talking stuff over with loved ones, partly so they could understand the stresses of my job better, and partly just to chat, chill out and wind down.  Even a ‘quiet’ day can be stressful.

It’s obvious to me now that I wasn’t the only one.

We each have to make our own choices in this life, and looking back it feels like I made a bad choice.

So next time your loved one says “How was your day?”  think very carefully before you say “Nothing much, pretty quiet, you know”, it’s possible that isn’t the best answer.  No medals, cerificates or prizes are handed out for bottling things up.  

Sometimes, it’s good to talk.