12 Jun 20 Ways to Stay Together

Is there some magic programme you can follow to perfect your partnership? Of course not, but here are 20 tips to increase your chances:

1. Being able to say sorry – the next day.
2. Being able to wait for the other person to say sorry – the next day.
3. Having genuine common interests, similar quirks, complementary vices and virtues.
4. Wanting the other’s good opinion.
5. Enjoying mutual silence/time off.
6. Giving permission to say the unpopular/voice anxieties.
7. Giving verbal encouragement always.
8. Reading the other’s moods.
9. Taking second place often enough.
10. Being given first place often enough.
11. Learning each other’s skills – work/domestic – so each is the other’s back-up.
12. From Day One, sorting out money issues.
13. Making criticism constructive/using assertion skills – “I’d prefer this…I won’t tolerate that”.
14. Touching – especially when things are difficult.
15. Planning and having fun.
16. Being open-minded about new ideas or adaptable to change (age/outlook/capacity/habit) at roughly the same rate or ratio.
17. Dragging a problem out by the teeth when necessary to move it on.
18. Respecting the other’s family – within reasonable limits.
19. Forgiving.
20. Learning how to enjoy domestic life – since we all end up in an armchair (if we live so long).