Considering Your Spouse’s Point of View

The difference between knowing and really knowing, or feeling, something is amazing. I’m the first person to tell others that a key to any relationship, but especially a marriage, is trying to think from the other person’s point of view. It’s absolutely essential in a marriage, because we are spending the rest of our lives living with this person. The more we try to understand how our spouse thinks, the better off we’ll be. I know this, and yet it’s so hard for me to act on it. For example: once in a while my husband has to work the … Continue reading

Balancing Your Time

Childless couples face some different problems than couples with kids, but some of our issues are the same. One problem that I think any married couple has is spending time with one another. The specifics of the problem, however, vary whether or not children are in the equation. It’s well-known that finding time, period, when you have kids is a common conundrum. Finding time to do household chores, take a shower, spend time with your spouse, and still have some alone time can all be troublesome depending how many and what age children you have. Obviously Jon and I don’t … Continue reading

Unpleasant Wedding Humor

I love injecting humor into weddings. The occasion can sometimes be taken too seriously, either made especially solemn or fraught with the nerves of invested parties that want everything to be perfect. So I’m all about taking things a little more lightly; my imagined and actual wedding invitations are proof of that. What I can’t get behind, however, is a certain brand of humor I often see or hear about at weddings or in the course of wedding planning. I hesitate to call it chauvinist or sexist but that’s ultimately what it is, or at least it springs from the … Continue reading

My Fake High School Wedding

This is the story of how I planned my wedding in high school. I’ll give you all a moment to recover from the shock: Families.com’s laid-back marriage blogger, she of the gender stereotyping rants and “what’s the big fuss” attitude toward schmoopy romance and wedding culture planned a wedding in her high school days. Never fear: I did it because I had to for class. My crazy gym/health teacher, the same woman who’d also make us write papers for our self-defense gym classes, made all of her students plan weddings as part of our sexual health education unit. It had … Continue reading

Contrasting Romances in Much Ado About Nothing

Perhaps my favorite example of my type of romance is the Shakespeare play “Much Ado About Nothing.” I like it because it’s a great play (the original romantic comedy), and I admit because a petty part of me likes the legitimacy Shakespeare lends my ideals of romance and marriage. Enter the two couples: the young Claudio and Hero, in starry-eyed infatuation with one another, and the older bickering Beatrice and Benedick, who always try to outdo each other in a war of wits. Benedick and Claudio are soldiers who made the acquaintance of Beatrice and Hero when they stayed at … Continue reading

Help With Housework

The makers of Scrubbing Bubbles have released the results from their second annual Dirty Work Index. They surveyed 2000 men and women and found that women still do most of the housework and as much as we may complain about that, it doesn’t seem that we are ready to give up the housecleaning limelight. Most women say they want more help around the house but they are not confident that their husbands can clean to their standards so they just do it themselves. Men feel they are helping more around the house but are not getting credit for it, and … Continue reading

Common Money Mistakes That Women Make

Did you know that men and women tend to make different kinds of mistakes when it comes to managing their money? While people of both genders certainly enjoy financial success, both men and women makes mistakes with their money. Suze Orman has come out with some advice that is tailored specifically towards women and the mistakes that tend to trip them up when it comes to their finances. According to Suze Orman, the root of the problem is that women have been taught, either consciously or subconsciously (including by example) to not manage their money. The result is that they … Continue reading

The Ebb and Flow of Marriage

Like the tides that ebb and flow, so do marriages…seasons and times where things go down but then come back up again. Sometimes these ups and downs are caused by real troubles in life. It could be a job change, sickness, financial difficulties, rebellious children and other family problems. When life is on an even keel then we might feel like our marriage is flowing along smoothly. But there are other times in our marriage when the ebb and flow isn’t caused by obvious life challenges. Sometimes we go through moments in our marriage when we allow feelings to dictate … Continue reading

Link Between Family’s Wealth and Teen Drinking

A recent study came out that discussed how teens from wealthier families had a higher tendency to drink alcohol than their peers who come from low income families. Although many like to think that having money would make you and your children healthier, this may not always be the case. At first, I found this study surprising, but upon reflection, I’m guessing it was the same way during my high school days. The big drinkers in my school were defiantly the “popular” kids, most of which were from the wealthier families in my hometown. They were the binge drinkers, getting … Continue reading

Being a Couple

‘The trouble with you is you’re so bloody independent, you don’t even know how to be a couple.’ That was the accusation flung at a character in a book recently. Unfortunately that attitude is not confined to fiction. It exists in real life. We see it every day – people who are so intent on retaining their individuality and independence that they don’t know how to maintain a relationship, because they never really see themselves as part of a couple. They are still just two individuals. I’m not saying when we get engaged or married we should be joined at … Continue reading