I'm going to throw another idea out there that may or may not be coming into play here between you and your wife. Ladies and gentlemen, please don't be offended by what I'm about to say (I don't know that you will be, but the possibility is there).

Men have a tendency, once they get "settled" in life (as a lot of us seem to be) to look for an adventure of some kind to get some of that personal excitement of youth back. Some do it by buying a sports car or a boat, some do it by skydiving, some do it by starting up an instrument or even doing negative things like drinking, fighting, etc. I'm going to throw out the idea here that some may even do it by trying out kilts full-time.

After some soul-searching, I realize that this is part of what does it for me. I like the adventure of stepping out every day in a garment that is a little different and is going to make people think a bit.

But I think the difference between a normal mid-life crisis and a kilted one is that we realize that the kilt really is a great change and therefore we want to keep it going. It's comfortable, etc. I won't go into all the reasons because there's a whole freaking forum full of them out there.

Now, on the other hand, I think women see these mid-life crises, roll their eyes, and wait for them to be over. And most of them aren't really going to affect anything in their lives. Sure, a sports car might cost a lot, and yeah, you could get hurt skydiving, but when there's a kilt involved, that tends to affect them, too - in the way THEY'RE percieved by their friends and people around them.

And the other side of the mid-life crisis is that eventually, it'll be over. But when it's NOT over, because of the aforementioned "kilts rule" discovery, that concerns them because their lives are changed. And therein lies some of the worry for some ladies. So many of them will rebel against the change by making excuses (some of which may actually have some basis in fact, such as the possibility of cow-orkers and management judging you harshly and causing reviews to be bad).

Now, this is not to say that all of us are this way - men or women. But the stereotype of the mid-life crisis is out there and it's hard to overcome stereotypes, even for the most open-minded people.

Again, these are GENERALITIES and don't necessarily apply to EVERYONE here, just my thoughts.