Backtalk: Our Marriage is Suffering

    Q: I’m over-organized and my wife is overly-disorganized. We use to laugh about our differences. After two years of marriage, it’s no longer funny. In fact, our marriage is crumbling because of these opposite habits. What should we do? How do we find a happy medium? Where do we begin?       — Darryl      


A: Stanley and Felice have been married 57 years. Here’s what they say:      

 “You begin by figuring out what changed you from laughing about your differences to breaking up your marriage over them. You’ll have to discover how your feelings for each other have changed, and determine what caused the changes. Once you make this discovery, you will be able, by open discussion, to find a happy medium. It will probably require some ‘give and take,’ as almost every marriage dispute does.”       — Stanley       


“I can hardly believe that after two years of marriage, you are both willing to accept that your marriage is ‘crumbling.’ Over what? What’s happened to communication? And, most of all, what’s happened to conversation? What’s happened to your sense of humor? Probably the latter is one of the most important ingredients in a happy and successful marriage. Sit down together and each of you come up with a compromise. And laugh about the ‘little things’!”       — Felice      


Send relationship/marriage problems to Sheryl@EverlastingMatrimony.com for real-life solutions from couples married 50-plus years. Visit Sheryl on the Web at www.EverlastingMatrimony.com.