Not only is this great for your own mental health, it probably also really helps him by taking away his favorite scapegoat in these situations. He can no longer take his bad mood and place the responsibility for it squarely on you, and spend the next hour or whatever stewing about how you are controlling or whatever he decides is the problem. Instead, he has the space to figure out what is going on inside him. Hopefully he can.
You're so right, May. He slept elsewhere last night, which I normally take as a sign he is angry with me, but he came up this morning early, before the kids got up. He was wary - probably expecting me to be angry with him, but just said 'I think you're right, I think I was really upset about my colleague' and I said, 'well, you've every right to be, it sounds really worrying' and that was that. I do wish he'd come to me for comfort when he was feeling upset, but I think if I a examine that honestly that is more about my need than his. So it all worked out really well, and taught me a lot about not taking things personally, giving space, keeping to my own side of the street, and getting out of the way when he's being crabby so he can focus on his own feelings.
I can't wait until the end of lockdown! I am sure I'd be less interested in the contents of his emotional life if he wasn't the only adult I saw...
