Secret #1: Do the “Little Things” That Matter Big Time One of the simplest things that happy couples tend to do differently, is that the husbands and the wives tend to do the same few day-to-day “little things” that always tell a woman or a man that “I care about you.” And it turns out,…
Dear Shaunti, I’m about to pull my very tired hair out. My wife and I know we shouldn’t go to bed angry, but our arguments only get worse the later they go. I love my wife, but I trulycan’t think straight after 11pm. Last night, I got so angry I said some hurtful things I shouldn’t…
Dear Shaunti, I love my wife, but I really hate her “things you do wrong” list. I pull away to avoid it, but the more I pull away, the more tempted I am to check out of the relationship. During normal times, things are fine. But whenever we argue about something, out comes the list…
Dear Shaunti, My husband and I have been getting irritated with each other lately. He said that I don’t appreciate him, which is ridiculous because I do! But he said that I never thank him for things like taking out the trash or mowing the lawn. Why should I thank him for doing something that’s his job? …
Dear Shaunti, I was really looking forward to our second Valentine’s Day together, until I unwrapped my present. A blender. He knows that I like jewelry, and he’s the one who likes smoothies. I got upset that he was being selfish, and then he got upset and said he had seen me looking at that…
Author note: This is one of a series giving a sneak peek into what I discovered about what makes happy marriages so happy! After years of nationally-representative research with more than 1,000 couples, I reveal the twelve most important little habits in The Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages: The Little Things That Make a…
