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"Rex and I used to fight all the time. Usually it was about really stupid stuff, too. &amp;quot;Who left the door open?&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;What do you mean you don&amp;#039;t want to go to that party?&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;You schtupped that hooker again?&amp;quot; (Kidding about that last one.) Now? We rarely argue. It&amp;#039;s not that we&amp;#039;re so perfect. It&amp;#039;s just that we already know how it&amp;#039;s going to end, so why bother getting all heated up? (I could say the same logic applies to passionate sex, but that&amp;#039;s completely different.) My organized husband will never be able to roll with toast instead of cereal in the morning. His fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants-wife will never understand why he can&amp;#039;t be more flexible with his morning routine. What&amp;#039;s a few days a month without Cheerios or milk? Our goal now is to do our best to help each other out, but when either of us messes up/misses the boat, we just smile and move on. Or, if we don&amp;#039;t smile, we at least don&amp;#039;t make a big deal about it. This article talks about 5 Ways to Avoid a Fight. I have a few tips of my own and would love to hear yours. 1. Schedule play time with your honey. For example, I&amp;#039;m currently irritated that Rex is a bit more interested in his new video game than asking me about my day. I started a new yoga class! I&amp;#039;m switching doctors! I am having second thoughts about last week&amp;#039;s dramatic church switch! Why is he not jumping all over me to hear every last minute details? Um... could be because he&amp;#039;s worked a zillion hours this week, is stressed over a project and possible jury duty. I suppose he&amp;#039;d rather blow up computer guys than blow up at me. Still... I do have stuff to get off my chest. The solution? We need to make time for each other this weekend. 2. Stop thinking about yourself and focus on your partner. See above example of Rex being tired. No need to nag him tonight. He&amp;#039;ll do the same for me when I call it a night in about ten minutes. 3. Have sex. Seriously. It&amp;#039;s the biggest stress release out there. (But it won&amp;#039;t be tonight. This eve sleep... and sleep alone... will cure my woes.) 4. Put your marriage before everything else, even when you don&amp;#039;t want to. If your kids were hungry, you wouldn&amp;#039;t say, &amp;quot;Naaah, not feeding you today. Good luck.&amp;quot; You&amp;#039;d find something for them to eat, right? Why would you not put that same emphasis into your union? 5. Take care of yourself. Sometimes, If I&amp;#039;m down or anxious, I go immediately to the &amp;quot;Why can&amp;#039;t Rex fix me&amp;quot; part of my daydreaming brain. Guess what? He can&amp;#039;t. He is a lovely addition, but he&amp;#039;s not my parent. I am not a child. I&amp;#039;m a grown up and have to make sure I do all I need to make me happy. This means exercise, prayer, friends, healthy food... even if those things aren&amp;#039;t always important to him. He is not me. It&amp;#039;s okay. Marriage can be tough. We all want perfection, but that&amp;#039;s not reality. When it feels like work, that&amp;#039;s the sign for me to turn to my top 5 checklist of stuff I need to do for a jumpstart. What about you? What are your tricks to avoid fighting? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/relationships/a3208/is-your-marriage-worth-the-fig/>