SECRETS TO A SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIP

(March, 2023) Buzzfeed asked “What rule do you have that makes your relationship stronger?” Some of the answers:
– “We don’t deal with each other’s families. We each attend family functions solo.”
– “We argue and have tough conversations by text. It makes us slow down and respond without blurting out something regretful. We argue less often and much more constructively when we do.”
– “We are both in our 30s and have no social media. Being able to keep our relationship to ourselves and only open to people we trust has been life-changing. It’s the strongest relationship either of us have had because we have zero outside influence.”
– “Not living together. I love and respect my partner’s decorating and cleaning styles, but they’re also completely different than mine, and I know they would irritate me. We’ve also both been married before, and we each have our own children. We both agree we feel a desire to sleep together every night, but still have our own space. We’ve decided to buy a duplex so our families can have separate spaces, but we can still sleep together and eat together as often as we want.”
– “My sister and her husband have a rule that they only fight when they are both naked. If an issue gets heated, they have to strip down and argue.”
– “Don’t share anything just because you’re ‘supposed’ to. We still buy groceries separately. I mean, we share pasta or butter, but we like different cheese, different coffee, different milk, etc. So, instead of discussing grocery shopping, we just buy things we want.”
– “We use ‘Oklahoma’ from Ted Lasso! Basically, if one of us says ‘Oklahoma’ in a conversation, the other person needs to be completely honest about what they’re thinking/feeling.”
– “A de-escalation rule we have is to start whispering when our arguments get too intense. Neither of us can take ourselves seriously when we intensely whisper. We can’t help but laugh, and we continue our heated discussion in a more loving way.”
* PHONE TOPIC: Have you got an unusual rule that keeps your relationship from falling apart?