I do not think I have the answer to that question about them staying out of guilt. I think that most macho men would leave completely if they were that guilt ridden AND did not think there was hope for their marriage.
I know my husband is very manly/macho. He is NOT going to do anything he DOES NOT want too. That is just how he is about EVERYTHING. So even though he has threatened to leave, that fact that he hasn't speaks volumes for me. I am finally really absorbing the concept of listen to NOTHING they say and only HALF of what they do.
Right now we are at some sort of stale mate. I am giving him his space though. Praying for him. I am not going to initiate any fights He has a lot of things and stress on his mind. I do not want to be a part of it. Hopefully I will be less and less of the burden. I did initiate two fights last week. It was me because I did not know when to just quit and I was making a huge issue of stuppid little comments he made. He warned me too. Bad me. So I myself have to remove my buttons. Monday he tried to press a few. I just let it go. And you know what it felt good.
In my sitch I feel like my H wants me to be the one to throw him out. That way he can throw it back in my face later. He loves throwing things I say back on my face later. Well you this, you that, thats why I did that and this. So my 180 is I will give him NOTHING he can throw back at me. I feel so much better. Now I have no regrets over what I say to him in the passion of the moment. We could have argued this past Monday. But we didn't. I had self control. Self control feels way better then anything mean, clingy, or needy I could have screamed at him.
