When Your Relationship Is Not Part of Your Marriage Anymore

Have you ever just stepped back and wondered what happened to the relationship with your spouse? You may be married but the relationship has ended. You go to work, come home, hardly speak and go to bed to do it all over again the next day. How much longer can you go on living without a relationship? Many married couples will say that their relationship has lost passion. That they just don’t feel the same they did when they were first dating their spouse. Of course they don’t, that initial phase of finding out all those exciting and crazy things … Continue reading

Marital Bliss Doesn’t Make a Marriage Work

Marital bliss…it is a common feeling experienced by newlyweds and one that seems to deteriorate with time. We tend to view this as a bad thing but I would like to challenge that. Marital bliss is romantic and all but there comes a point in your marriage when you have to learn how to live. The reality of life is that not everyday will be magical. There are bills to be paid, long days to get through, children to raise, pressures to deal with and the list goes on. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy marriage while dealing with all … Continue reading

Quality Time with Your Spouse

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the importance of getting away with your spouse. We were about to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary and despite original plans to take this romantic vacation to Maine, it had all blown up because of finances. But in the end I was grateful since it was during the time of the hurricane that we would have been there. The day before our 20th wedding anniversary we went back and forth with ideas on what we could do. We wanted to get away for the entire day but not spend a lot of … Continue reading

Disasters and Marriage

Disasters affect relationships in one of two ways. They can bring a couple closer together as they cling to each other for support and comfort and love. Or they can produce so much anger that people turn against each other and take out their frustrations on those closest to them. This is eyes exactly what is happening in Christchurch. Reports show ‘domestic violence has surged by 50 percent after a major tremor rocked New Zealand’s second city last September.’ That tremor was ‘the prelude to Tuesday’s quake that left at least 123 dead and destroyed parts of the city centre.’ … Continue reading

Do Marriage Preparation Classes Work?

As many of you know I’m a big advocate for marriage preparation classes. But do they work, that is the question? The other day I received an e-mail giving me a link to an article about a study regarding marriage preparation classes. Thanks to Amanda Verzello for sending this to me. The article looks at whether marriage preparation classes work. The article didn’t appear to come to a definitive conclusion. It was very much yes and no. Yes, in the sense that in the majority of cases, it did improve communication between couples. To my mind anything that improves communication … Continue reading

Two Interesting Statistics about Marriage

Haven’t all of us at times wished we could go back in time and do things over, and do them better or differently? Haven’t we all wished we could eliminate he mistakes and improve our lives? If you had it all to do over again would you marry the same person? According to Time magazine that question was asked in a survey that extended over 15 countries. The survey found that 68 percent of people surveyed said if they could do it all again, they would marry the same person. Would you be one of those like that 68 percent? … Continue reading

Quality of Marriage

The quality of your marriage might well depend on whether and in what quantities these other Qs are present. If you or your spouse is any of those mentioned below you might for you marriage’s sake try and eliminate them from your marriage Querulous The dictionary definition is complaining or peevish. Do you know someone who is like this, who is always complaining? I do and, no, it’s not Mick or anyone in the family. No matter what anybody does it is never right, never good enough. There’s always something they have to whinge about. It is very wearing and … Continue reading

Hs for a Happy Marriage

Yes, after a little diversion of the last two days to other marriage topics, I’m back with my alphabetical hints for marriage. H is the star today. So, if you want a happy marriage consider adopting some of these H hints. Helpful This is a bit like the one Andrea came up with the other day of favors. It can mean just being helpful in the little things like shopping, picking up clothes, or washing up. My husband often does the washing and wiping up if I am trying to meet writing deadlines. Or it might mean being helpful in … Continue reading

Marriage is Like a Good Cup of Coffee

In a conversation with my married daughter recently, she came out with this gem about marriage. Marriage is like a good cup of coffee. Keep reading and you’ll see how. A prevalent idea around at present is that if it’s the right person, it will all come naturally and easily and without any effort being expended. I actually came across almost these exact words in a novel written by a young woman I read yesterday. There is the view that you won’t have to work hard to maintain the relationship. Again, that is reflected in many movies. We don’t see … Continue reading

Marriage Essentials

Do you want to know four essentials for a good marriage? Here they are: Encouragement This quality cannot be stressed enough. One of our adult offspring once said, ‘you and Dad always encouraged me in whatever I did. You made me believe I could do anything I set my mind to.’ While I was pleased to hear that, I also thought that’s the sort of encouragement each of us needs to be for our spouse. We need to be behind them in whatever they do encouraging them every step of the way, whether it’s changing jobs or learning a new … Continue reading