Friendship and marriage are different kinds of relationships, though they do share some common features.
Usually our friends don't live with us. We have no mutual financial or legal obligations with them.
Friends come and go as they please. A married couple shares a home, responsibilities, a daily routine, and in-laws.
A married couple typically has a wider circle of support, which includes relatives, and relies less on friendship than people who aren't married.
This is a different kind of support than the kind you'd expect from a friend. If a husband suddenly decides to leave his well-paying career and take up competitive fishing, a friend will support his decision. But his wife? She'll probably have questions.
We tend to perceive our spouse's fears and concerns as a lack of the kind of support we'd expect from a friend. And then disappointment in our partner and resentment can end up destroying our marriage.
Research shows that men are more likely to view their wife as a friend. This is linked to the fact that men, as a rule, tend to have fewer friends than women.
Women more often build and maintain friendly relationships outside of marriage, and so tend to keep the concepts of friendship and marriage more separate.
