Remember how easy it was to think of ways to be kind or generous to your husband or wife back when you were dating? Remember how you ate that stuff up when he or she did things for you? Remember how you could do something nice without expectations and still be surprised and delighted when something nice happened in return? What stops you from doing those things and enjoying those benefits today...
What is Love?
What is love? Many think love is that euphoric feeling you get when everything seems perfect between the two of you and you know you want to spend your lives together. Some folks will tell you this feeling we call love is fleeting and will not last. They offer two solutions. One group says move on and fall in love again with someone new: split up, divorce, have an affair. The other says forget...
Why Can’t My Husband Be More Sociable?
Someone who has participated in my Enjoy Being Married teleclasses – we will call her Joan – wrote me last week with a long-running problem. I think it may sound pretty familiar to a lot of us. Her husband – we will call him John – is a serious man, quiet, hard to read, off in his own world at times, and not very good at telling a story. He’s not a people person...
What I Expect from a Husband
An awful lot of complaints about the men in our lives start the same: I expect my husband to pick up after himself. I expect him to at least remember when our anniversary is! I expect that when I cook, he does the dishes. I did not expect that once we married, he would kiss me only when he’s looking for sex. And I did not expect he would make such a fuss about visiting my family. I expect...
Why Don’t You Get a Job?
“The kids are grown. They have their own car. One’s in college. The other is going next year. Why don’t you get a job? We could really use the money.” “I want to. But not just any job. I can’t go back to what I was doing. I need coworkers I can stand being around. And I need to keep doing something meaningful. I am not sure I could stand working in an insurance...