Marriage Success

Welcome!

Thank you for coming to this blog.

My name is Stan Dubin and to your right is a picture of my wife, Mary Ann, and our daughter, Chelsea.

My wife and I have been married for over 25 years and during that time we've used a good deal of information to keep our marriage at a high level. We've had a few rough patches, but we knew how to restore the love and affection. We're VERY happy together and our daughter has grown up to be a productive, ethical and very happy young lady.

This blog has all kinds of good things for you. Over to the right, you'll see links to: a "free articles" section; a page with great marriage quotes; and an opportunity to try out some phone counseling (first ten minutes is complimentary). And of course, there are the many posts you'll see by scrolling down.

We also have a free newsletter covering subjects like:

• Resolving Disagreements and Upsets
  
  
• Lowering the Stress in a Marriage
  
  
• Improving Communication
  
  
• Helping Children to Be Contributing, Positive Members of the Family
  
  
• Increasing the Passion and Excitement
  
  
• And much more...

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Improving Communication and Respect With Your Children

Yesterday I received an email from a reader who is having difficulty with her daughter. With her permission, here is the email:

Hello! I have a six year old daughter who is very smart, independent and beautiful. She is also spoiled and disrespectful. Today I received an email from her teacher informing me that my daughter had said something VERY disrespectful to her in front of the class. She's only in first grade.

I've had these talks with her, but it seems like she doesn't GET what respect is. Her father and I (all in the same house) don't treat each other disrespectfully, and I don't feel like we treat her disrespectfully. I do feel like my conversations with her are superficial, and she will barely listen to me long enough for me to get my point out. Like I said, disrespectful.

How can I make our communication more effective? She isn't all that reluctant to share things with me, although she is sketchy on the details. Thank you for your attention. I'm just looking to elaborate on your blog about being out of communication. Have a good weekend!

She was referring to an earlier post: How Did My Child Get So Disrespectful.

In this post I promised to provide specific tools that would help parents increase the flow of respect and communication between parent and child. This post will provide a very effective tool to accomplish this. It comes from the works of L. Ron Hubbard:

"Set aside a time during the day when the child can do anything he desires which doesn’t hurt animals or property. If he wants you around during this time, which you can begin to call ‘Billy’s time,’ fine. Spend the hour or two with him and do whatever he asks you to do, within reason of course. After the novelty wears off he will begin to use ‘his’ time to ask you questions about the world around him, questions which you should answer very carefully and accurately, no matter what the subject might be. It would be very unfair to say, in answer to an innocent question about sex for instance, ‘Now let’s don’t talk about nasty things like that.’ Answer him simply and fully, and with an absolute minimum of stammering and blushing on your part.

“Sometimes the child will want to spend ‘his’ time being held on your lap, and the special case might even want a bottle. Don’t tell him this is childish, and that he has outgrown such pursuits. Give him the bottle and hold him on your lap until he tires of this.

“Perhaps he will want to dramatize [act out] family difficulties, such as a recent argument between his parents. Fine. Go over it with him just as he desires. This will often be beneficial for the child and the parent. When the child becomes assured that there are no strings attached to your offer of ‘his’ time, he will take full advantage of the opportunity to go over many details which have hurt him, and once returned to in this fashion, they will seldom bother him again.

“Then, after a few periods spent in this way, ask if there is anything he wants to know, or anything he wants to talk about. Allow his dignity and enormous self-determinism to assert itself. Coax him to explain things to you, in his own language. When he runs across something which troubles him for a meaning, he will ask you, if you have gained his confidence. Sometimes when the child asks you a question which you are sure he should have known for some time, feed it back to him as another question, asking him what he thinks about it. This is often what the child really wants, and is only using the question as a means of opening discussion on the subject."

My wife and I applied this to our daughter, Chelsea, when she was six years old. She was elated when she heard she could have an entire hour of her "own time." We told she could do anything she wanted (as long as we didn't have to pay for anything during that time).

Chelsea was certain what she wanted: trips to Toys R Us! Several days in a row, she took us to her favorite store and marched us down one aisle after another. She showed us dozens of different toys that she thought were neat. Her mom stayed with her the entire time, but I got briefly sidetracked looking at some toys on my own! After a couple of strong looks from my wife, I quickly returned to her and Chelsea's side.

On the 3rd or 4th day, while we were driving home from Toys R Us, Chelsea started asking us questions about different areas of life. My wife and I looked at each other almost in disbelief, but sure enough she wanted to know about things she had NEVER asked about before. We treated her with complete respect and didn't give her "dumbed down" answers to her questions. As this question-and-answer session was moving along, I could see our daughter in the rear view mirror thinking things over.

We continued to give Chelsea "own time" as much as we could. Ideally, you'd do it every day. If not an hour, then maybe half an hour. What if you have four kids and each one wants their own time? Well, I'd give two kids half an hour each day and the next day another two would get half an hour each. Some kind of plan can be put together that will be fair to all of the kids.

After we did this for awhile with our daughter, we noticed two major changes. She was much calmer and she was in better communication with us.I would surmise kids at various ages might have a certain franticness about having the latest toys. After looking and talking about many of those toys for several days, it appears that franticness just kind of disappeared.

Another important observation: Our daughter had complete control of what was done during this hour. It was "her time" and she was able to be very self-determined during this time period. Often kids are put in very controlled environments: do this now; do this here; go to sleep now; go to school now. The more self-determinism your child can present to the world, the better off he/she is going to be.

Last but not least, when you improve the communication with your child, you also improve the level of respect. And so it went!

Give this process a serious try and let me know how it goes!

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Marriage Quotes...and a Few Personal Thoughts, Part 1

In the next few posts, let's look at some of the marriage quotes that have been collected together on this blog.

The first one is:

"Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side." - Zig Ziglar

It took me longer than it should have to REALLY get that my wife and I were on the same side. I recall some of the strange notions I was operating with:

"I need to win this argument no-matter-what."

"If I persist long enough or sulk loudly enough, she'll give in."

"She just doesn't understand how important this is to ME."

There were other strange notions, but let's just say I finally got the idea my wife was not a member of the opposing team. She and I were (and are) on the same team. Sometimes this idea gets lost or diminished. I'm sure there are a variety of reasons this happens, but one simple solution is to just step back and look at our spouse and say: "Hey, we're on the same side. Let's work this out together."

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The next marriage quote is:

"There is no remedy for love but to love more." - Goethe

Wow! That one doesn't seem to give much wiggle-room, does it?

When you feel compelled to reduce your affinity for your spouse, take a different tack and increase your affinity. I realize this sounds awfully easy for me to suggest and not so easy to do, but here is a great tool that will help you accomplish this.

When the going gets tough, Goethe is basically saying use MORE affinity, not less.

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And the final marriage quote for this post is:

"I got gaps; you got gaps; we fill each other's gaps." - Rocky

Okay, I realize this is from the movie, but I think the quote is great!

Each of us has areas that are not quite yet in perfect working order. In a relationship, we have two basic choices on how to deal with these "gaps":

1. We could focus on how these areas are a problem or


2. We could concentrate on what each of us does well

I am not suggesting we ignore the "gaps." They are what they are. Each of us would like to minimize or eventually get rid of these areas where we feel we're not performing well. In the meantime, Spouse A can help Spouse B (and vice-versa) by filling the gaps.

Rocky definitely tried to fill Adrian's gaps and Adrian was intent on returning the favor.

Something to learn there.

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Supporting Your Spouse

One of the fastest ways to reduce trust with your spouse is to badmouth them to others, i.e. friends, associates, co-workers, or, worse, to your parents or other members of your family.

If this gets back to your spouse (which it inevitably will), or even worse, if you do it in front of them, this will reduce and possibly destroy the trust in your relationship.

Another version of this is failing to defend your spouse when another criticizes them. For example, let’s say your parents start to criticize your spouse. You have to, at that point, stick up for your spouse. To not do so is to start down a slippery slope. When you said “I do” you agreed to create a team with that person, and you have to defend that person, even if it’s your parents giving them a bad rap. If you don’t, it will begin to drive a wedge between your spouse and your parents.

You have to think of you and your husband or wife as a team. You are working together to create a good measure of survival for the both of you, your kids, and everyone related to the family.

So how do you work well with members of a team? Well, you have to be supportive and positive. This means to consider, think about, and communicate about that person’s best qualities. You want to build them up and make them feel good about themselves.

This doesn’t mean to lie to them and tell them how great they are at something when they aren’t really. And I’m not talking about fake “self-esteem” where you make someone feel great about themselves without any consideration of actual achievement. What I’m saying is that you are supportive of your spouse and make them feel good about the person they are and about the things that they are good at. Protect and defend them against attack.

And they’ll do the same for you. That’s a real team.

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Is Compromise the Answer?

Today with most marriage counseling, the marriage counselor will advise the couple to compromise with each other.

In other words, learn to accept your spouse’s faults or quirks. If she burns dinner, that makes it OK that you lost $300 at the casino. If he or she cheats, well, that makes a good number of the other’s faults OK.

An article on Buzzle.com stated “Marriage is all about compromise. Compromise is hard. With or without marriage counseling, married couples need to learn to solve their problems. Counseling can be a place to learn these skills, but should never be the only thing used to save an unhappy marriage.”

But compromising doesn't really restore the love and passion, does it? To be frank, compromising doesn't even restore the enjoyment to a relationship.

I believe that in order to save a marriage that is in trouble, you have to sit down and take a hard look at what your spouse has done to you that was difficult for you to experience or that broke the agreements of the marriage. But you also have to take a serious look at what you have done to your spouse that was difficult for them to experience or that was against the agreements and commitments of the marriage.

It’s a 2-way street. Everybody knows about the Golden Rule, i.e. not doing something to someone else that you wouldn’t want to have done to you. Well those are the things that can wreck a marriage. If you look at it from both ways, it can really have a healing effect.

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How Did My Child Get So Disrespectful?

This is a question too many parents are asking these days. And it seems the age at which this problem manifests is getting younger and younger.

Let's look at some of the apparent reasons for this:

1. Peer pressure. Kids tend to emulate what the "other" kids are doing so if they observe their friends being disrespectful to their parents, this makes it easier for them to follow suit.


2. Turbulent school environment. If the scene at school is rough and kids are learning not-so-wonderful character traits, this can rub off at home.


3. Parents not around. When both parents work or spend too much time away from home, some children find ways to let their parents know they object to this. Disrespect may certainly be one of these ways.

Each one of the above most certainly can be factors, but let me suggest another possibility:

The parent and the child are OUT of communication with each other.

What does that mean: "out" of communication? It means simply there may be talking going back and forth, but communicating isn't really happening. The child has things on his mind that s/he doesn't want the parents to know or is too embarrassed to tell them. The parents observe conduct that they consider non-optimum and instead of sitting down with the child and discussing this, they get backed off or consider they just don't have the time to do so.

The child may be struggling to understand something about life or upset about something that happened with a friend. The parent who gets in there and finds out these things and is there to gently help the child resolve these concerns is a parent who is instilling respect into the relationship. And this respect goes both ways: from the child to the parent and from the parent to the child.

A vital ingredient in helping your child grow is communication. It cannot be brushed off. To the degree that your conversations with your child are superficial, to that degree your child will go out of harmony with you. You, the parent, are in control of how much harmony and respect there is in your home.

Each of the three factors given above (peer pressure, etc.) may be present in your child's life. But if you and your child are in superb communication, these factors just do not have the same impact they would otherwise.

It is never too late to get into better and better communication with your child. Every step in that direction is a major step in the right direction.

In future posts, we'll discuss ways to bring about this superb communication with your child.

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You've Just Had a Big Fight...

You and your spouse just had a huge fight. You're absolutely sure you're in the right and most likely your spouse feels the same way. You have a few options:

1. You could continue fighting.


2. You could stop fighting and let the upset simmer for awhile (maybe days or weeks).


3. You could both take a walk around the block (each in the opposite direction) until the two of you are extroverted from the upset.

I'm going to recommend Option Number 3.

When two people are very upset, it's difficult to resolve things from that very upset state of mind. If the two of you take a walk around the block, the idea is to walk long enough until you are "extroverted" from the upset. In other words, you've popped out of the upset and you no longer want to strangle your spouse. While on this walk, each of you needs to put your attention on things in your external environment: look at plants, trees, houses, other people, clouds, etc. Put your attention on things outside of you and this will produce an extroversion from the upset. And, as mentioned, each of you goes a different direction on this walk.

When the two of you have successfully completed this walk, you can then sit down and take a fresh look at what's upsetting both of you.

Do not underestimate the effectiveness of this "walk." I can absolutely assure you it will put the two of you in a better position to resolve the upset before it gets too far out of hand (or goes onto the backburner where both of you stay upset for awhile).

In my book, When the Thrill Is Gone, additional procedures are given to resolve marital upsets. There is also an entire chapter to help people get over the loss and upset of a previous relationship that didn't end well.

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Are Some Marriages Doomed to Fail?

No relationship is "doomed" to fail. I believe each person, through his decisions and actions, determines how happy and fulfilling his life will be. And I believe this holds true for married couples. I'm not big on fate or astrology. I'm big on personal responsibility.

Now, having said that, if two people with very little in common, who have spent very little time together race off to Vegas and get married, the chances of their marriage succeeding are not as great as the couple that has taken the time to know each other and who share many things in common.

I'm not against people meeting and having such a compassionate first week that they are absolutely compelled to tie the knot right away. I find that exceptionally adventurous. And I would never say such a couple is "doomed" to fail. With the right tools, every marriage can succeed.

How much should one know about a possible spouse-to-be prior to getting married? That depends on what each person considers important. Religion is extremely important to some and completely insignificant to others. Some consider opposing political beliefs a deal-breaker. How about each person's ambition? Does the wife-to-be wish to have a full-fledged career and perhaps a child 15 years down the road? Does the husband-to-be want to continue in his current job that takes him out of town two weeks of every month?

It's probably a good idea to talk over the main issues. The more things you share in common, the more points of agreement (and strength) you'll have going in.

What if you're married and you didn't take the time to really sort these things out? Not to worry. It's never too late to communicate. There is an earlier post on married couples setting goals. That will help.

A successful marriage is based on a few very key fundamentals. One of these is communication. The answer is always going to be in the area of more communication, not less.

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Marriage Quotes

I scoured the net to see what others have said about the subject of a successful marriage. I found quite a few marriage quotes that I thought you'd like.

From Lao Tzu to Tolstoy, from Homer to John Lennon.

You'll find some great quotes from Thoreau, L. Ron Hubbard and Pearl S. Buck. And many others.

Read them over and see if they give you some new insights. The very last one was a big hit with several of my friends.

Note: I included a "Great Marriage Quotes" link on the left column of this blog (under the section "Marriage Success Resources"). I'll be adding more quotes as time goes by. Feel free to use the bookmark link below to assist your return here.

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Can a Pet Help a Marriage Succeed?

We're all familiar with the emails that make their way around the net that tell a story compelling enough for us to forward the email along to our friends. Some of these emails tell a hilarious story; some inspire us to do something kind, compassionate or perhaps even adventurous. We do love stories!

Well, today I received one of those emails and it was about a very grumpy father (in his 60s) and his daughter's attempt to bring some joy and peace of mind to her dad. And as the title of this post suggests, it was about a pet.

Now, I realize not everyone is a pet lover. And I certainly respect that. I grew up without any pets in the house and I always felt I missed out on something. So when I got my own place (a beat-up apartment above a restaurant that had fabulous French Fries), one of the first things I did was get a dog. It wasn't a pure bred, but he sure didn't know it, and he and I had a fabulous relationship.

Some years later, my fiance and I were sitting outside chatting away when a stray dog came by and befriended us. We gave the little fella a bit to eat and she decided right there on the spot that we were an acceptable couple for her new home. (Yes, we tried to find her owners but were not successful.)

My wife and I have been married now for 28 years and during that entire time, we have almost always had a wonderful pet, sometimes two. Our daughter was thrilled whenever there were puppies and/or kittens to take care of.

For me personally, I really enjoy the friendship that can exist between a dog and a person. And I'm sure for others a cat or even a bird can bring a great friendship into being.

But I also observed a very interesting effect a pet had on my marriage. My wife and I love dogs and this was a strong point of agreement between us. There have been times when my wife and I were upset with each other and our dog would come between us and do one of two things: 1) she'd bark at us with this commanding intention that we stop fighting or 2) she'd come right into the middle of us if we were in bed or on the couch and snuggle up next to both of us. Invariably my wife and I would step back and start laughing, realizing that our dog was doing what she could do to end the upset.

Beyond the "marriage counselor" role that our dogs have played, they have always been considered a part of the family. And this bond had a very positive effect on the bond that existed between my wife and I and between us and our daughter. Anything that increases reality and agreement between people will also increase the affinity and communication. This principle (of the effect Affinity, Reality and Communication have on each other) is discussed in greater detail in this article.

Anyway, this is a much longer post than I had envisioned, so I'll wrap it up here. If you carry on further into this post, you can read the email that I received earlier today that I found very touching and every pet lover will enjoy...

What Does the "Free Hugs" Video Have to Do With It?

The following video has been viewed over twenty-two million times on YouTube!

(Make sure your speakers are turned on)

 

I think you know why I included this video on a blog called "Marriage Success." A fast kiss on the cheek or the lips is certainly a show of affection. But take a few seconds more and give your spouse a nice, deep hug. The affinity you deliver with a great hug is worth its weight in gold. And don't wait for the "right moment" to give your husband or wife a fabulous hug. Give them freely. They'll work wonders!

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Additional info on the above video: After watching it, I found out about another Free Hugs "campaign" that was carried out in Santa Monica and one in South Korea, Amsterdam, Hollywood, Israel, China and on and on.

One guy, Juan Mann, started this phenomenon of simply giving out "free hugs." If you head over to YouTube and type in "free hugs," you'll find a ton of videos on this incredible wave of friendship and affinity.

Juan Mann decided to brighten up the lives of passerbys in Sydney, Australia by giving them free hugs. As a result hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of "free" hugs have been dispensed by complete strangers!

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