This was a great week here in the Marriage blog and as always; it’s a pleasure to share the challenge of bringing you marriage news and information with Sherry. Our guest blogger this week was Catherine Ipizcade and I suggest you check out her blogs on celebrating her marriage as well as bridal shower tips. For Sherry and I, the biggest challenge came at the end of the week as the New Jersey Supreme Court handed down their decision on Same-Sex unions. While Sherry and I often come down on opposite sides of this issue, we believe in healthy and respectful debate! Thanks for joining us this week, don’t forget to turn your clocks back tonight, they fall back 1 hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. So without further ado, here is our Marriage Week in Review for October 21-27 :
Saturday, October 21, 2006
In Instinct: Our Fight or Flight we discussed the fact that when we’re married, our instinct for fight or flight can really get in the way of solving problems and relating to our spouses. When we are fighting or disagreeing with our spouses and fight or flight kicks in we can either avoid the disagreement by agreeing with whatever they are saying or we can battle with them, fighting fervently for our side, our belief, our pride or whatever it is that we are fighting for. In Creating A Safe Environment for Conflict we talked about the fact that a fight is not what you want to have with your spouse – but a conflict, a conscious conflict is something you can exert control over and you can control your natural responses to it. Fights are messy and conflict is something that can help you create a healthier marriage environment. Those Dreaded In-Laws addresses the fact that sometimes the cliché of the bad in-laws is based on fact.
Sunday, October 22
Re-Invest In Your Common Ground offered some advice on how to regain common ground in your marriage if you and your spouse have drifted apart. In Re-Investing In Your Marriage – Planning Date Nights we discussed how to talk about your dreams, where you’d like to be and your feelings and how to recapture those times when it was just the two of you and when driving out of your way was well worth just a few minutes of time together. In Who are you married to?ussed the fact that as people age, they change and rediscovering each other is a great deal of fun. In Those Wonderful In-Laws Sherry addressed the fact that some in-laws are great and they are one of the real perks of getting married.
Monday, October 23
Welcome Home, Laura welcomes Laura Spencer back to General Hospital after a 4 year absence just in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of the biggest wedding events in daytime history. Retaliation Affair: Really? You Think? addressed the danger of compounding one partner’s affair with another in order to punish the other. The Triangle of Love tackled the three fundamental parts of love: compassion, passion and forgiveness. In And Baby Makes Three Sherry discussed the transition from being a couple to being a family of three and the challenge of it.
Tuesday, October 24
In the Marriage News: Strange But True we talked about a website called WeddingBetter.com. The site invites visitors to bet on how quickly a couple will divorce based on a photograph and a paragraph blurb about how the couple met, courted and became engaged. In A Couple of Parents Sherry discussed that parenting as a couple and as partners is important and when one or the other feels under appreciated or undermined then it can lead to discord in the marriage and the family. In Marriage News: Are Marriages Really in a Minority? we discussed the survey that found for the first time in American history that married couples accounted for less than 50% of U.S. households. There are many reasons for this statistic and it is nowhere near as dramatic as it sounds.
Wednesday, October 25
In Marriage Tips: Never Settle Again we talked about the hard part of marriage can be getting so caught up in the routine of taking care of things that you forget to live your lives. In 10 Things She Needs From Her Husband one of the 10 things we said a wife needs is to hear daily that she is loved because we all need affirmation and whether it’s the words or actions, we need to know we’re loved and cared for. In The Importance of Laughter in Marriage, Catherine joined us to talk about celebrating her 7th wedding anniversary and to celebrate her marriage.
Thursday, October 26
In Throwing a Bridal Shower, Catherine offered bridal shower tips and ideas for prospective brides and families of the bride. In 10 Things He Needs From His Wife we discussed that one of the things a husband needs is for his wife to believe in him and his capabilities, men believe that they need to be the protectors and the providers and they need their wives to believe in them and their capabilities to do just that. In What’s Wrong With Being Single? we tackled some of the perceptions surrounding the stigma of being single and how it can affect self-image and self-esteem. In Courts and Marriage Sherry asks readers about their opinions on whether or not courts should be able to decide the definition of marriage or should it be a protected institution under a rule of law?
Friday, October 27
In Friday Marriage Funnies – How to Always Be Right we offered a tongue in cheek secret to how you can always be right when you play the Blame Game. In When You’re Angry at God or the Universe we discussed the fact that sometimes we are consumed by powerlessness and it can be easy to blame the divine for every problem in our lives and forget that we can effect change.
In a highlight to end the week, Sherry and I took our point and counter point in the marriage debates as we discussed in my Marriage in the News: New Jersey Supreme Court Recognizes Same-Sex Unions and in Sherry’s New Jersey Supreme Court Ruling on Same Sex Marriage the decision handed down by the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Court’s decision that will require state lawmakers to make a provision to either include same-sex couples in marriage laws or create a separate, but equal form of civil unions. Sherry brought up the salient point that the New Jersey decision worries other states because there is no residency requirement for marriage license application in the state of New Jersey.
This has been a great week here in the marriage blog and this is our last Marriage Week in Review for the month of October. Don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour tonight, at 2 a.m. Sunday, October 29 for those areas and states that were on Daylight Savings Time.
What was your favorite story this week?
Previous Marriage Week in Reviews:
The Marriage Week in Review – October 14-20
The Marriage Week in Review – October 7 – 13
Marriage The Week in Review – September 30 – October 6
The Week in Review – September 23-29
The Marriage Week in Review – September 16-22
The Week in Review – September 9 – 15