Are you one of those parents who did not have great role models for marriage as you were growing up? Did you have to discover some of the skills for sustaining an intimate relationship on your own? Me, too. And as you know if you have read my Author page, it took a huge whack upside the head for me to catch on. So, what would I teach a daughter if I had one still in middle school or high school...
I have two this year: Find more creative Third Alternatives when we disagree – We disagree a lot, so I will have lots of opportunity here. A good Third Alternative combines delighting my husband with getting what I want, always a pure delight. I intend to reach out to my creative friends and my readers to come up with even better alternative whenever we think there are just two and we...
For those who don’t get excited about receiving gifts, giving them can be a chore. Worse yet, gift-giving can become a no-win trap, one in which they are certain to disappoint someone who matters a lot to them. Here are seven ways to have more fun this month if you love giving and receiving gifts but your spouse doesn’t: Create a wish list and make it easy for your mate to find. Find...
A lucky few grow up able to see what love is and how their parents love each other, growing better at it every year. But most of us don’t. We go into marriage with something like the Foreigner song lyric lurking in our heads: “I wanna know what love is; I want you to show me.” We meet a good man or woman, discover love, and marry. At first, we’re fine. We feel so loved. We...
When you’re upset about any other part of life with your husband, wife, or life partner, it’s likely you will start noticing your differences, too. How compatible do you need to be to keep the relationship going? Compatibility has two sides: propriety and enthusiasms. Marry someone whose ideas of what’s proper and what’s not differ wildly from yours and you’ll...
