You have been dating for a while, a few years; maybe more. You get along with your significant other beautifully. You have a warm friendship, you trust each other, you get along with each other's family, and you couldn't imagine your life without your special someone. But are you ready to be married?
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How will you really know when you are ready? Great question. There are many things to consider; however, as you've probably been told, "There is no good time to have a baby." Are either of you still in school? And if so, how much time will that take away from parenting?
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One of the hardest things to do, whether it is with a partner, a friend, a parent, or someone else, is to earn trust. Even harder is earning trust from someone who was hurt in the past. Even if they were hurt by someone other than you, people who have been burnt tend to have a hard time trusting, in general. Here are some things you can do to earn the trust of someone who has been hurt in the past.
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This issue can be very frightening and very challenging, especially if you have romantic feelings for your friend but you don't know if your friend feels the same way about you. Tread lightly. Although some people have found true happiness by getting involved with and then marrying a former friend, some people have tried to get romantically involved with a friend, only to lose the romance, as well as the friendship. Here are some thoughts on how you can approach this issue if you have feelings but don't know if your friend feels the same way.
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One of the biggest problems is that constant or charged bickering can make others uncomfortable to the point that you’ll find your circle of friends shrinking rather than widening. Maybe you’re a more private person who doesn’t care about socializing in large groups anyway, but it’s nice to keep your options open, especially when it comes to friends you enjoy as a couple. Don’t get me wrong: I am not advocating putting on an act in front of your friends at parties to prove that you’re the happiest couple alive. That would probably backfire, anyway.
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Do you ever see a problem coming a mile away—a potential conflict between you and your partner—and spend hours (at least in the back of your mind) worrying about it? The good news is, it’s normal. Like kids worried about showing our parents a poor grade, we often blow things out of proportion. We assume that if we have bad news for our partner, he or she is going to have a terrible reaction.
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So, for whatever reason, as the result of your divorce, you no longer see your child(ren) every day. No doubt it breaks your heart and you struggle to figure out how you are supposed to be a positive role model for your child when you were not granted primary custody. After your initial grieving over the facts of your circumstances, you need to decide to be strong and come up with a plan on how you will be involved as the non-custodial parent. No, it won't be easy, but it will be worth it.
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As an example, Tom described a string of dates the couple recently went on together where it seemed Brooke constantly found things to complain about. One night it was the service at the restaurant; another, it was a loud party at the table next to them. The last time they went to see a movie it was “the most predictable story line she’d ever seen.” On still another outing, she complained mightily about the traffic on the way to their destination.
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According to the American Psychological Association, between 40 to 50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce. That’s not news to anyone these days—the divorce rate in Western cultures has been notoriously high for decades. What does that mean to you? For one thing, during the course of your relationship and lives, you’re going to witness your fair share of friends, family members, colleagues, neighbors and others going through divorce.
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It is never a happy place to be when dealing with infertility. In fact, many marriages suffer tremendously or end as the result of the inability to conceive a child. The moment you notice that your marriage is being threatened by these events, it is time to make some changes. The most common thing to happen when infertility is present is for everyone to want to blame someone.
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