The Couples Post

Support for married couples, by married couples.

  • About
  • Date Night Ideas
  • 50 Ways to Love Your Lover
  • About
  • Date Night Ideas
  • 50 Ways to Love Your Lover

Pages

  • 20 Ways to Become a More Patient Spouse this Week
  • 25 Conversation Starter Questions on Sexuality
  • 50 Questions to ask your spouse besides “How was your day?”
  • 50 Ways to Engage Kids on a Budget
  • 50 Ways to Love Your Lover
  • About
  • At Home Dating
  • BAILEY’S TREE
  • Barriers to Forgiveness and Healing
  • Confronting for the Sake of Our Relationship
  • Conversation Starters
  • Date Night Ideas
  • Dialogue
  • Double Chocolate Brownies
  • Emotional Bank Account
  • Feelings Reflect Who I am as a Unique Individual
  • Four Basic Psychological Needs
  • How to Foster Teamwork – A Starter List
  • In Memory of Fr. Tom Ogg
  • Let’s Talk about Sex
  • Making Decisions as a Couple – 10 Steps
  • Marriage Check-up Exercise
  • Our Family Commandments
  • Phones at the Dinner Table Discussion Questions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Re-Evaluation
  • Stress vs. Burnout and Depression
  • The Power of Positive: Examples of Converting Negatives about our Relationship to Positives
  • There’s Always Something More to Talk About
  • Worldwide Marriage Encounter Experience
  • Writing a Focused Love Letter
  • Children,  Communication,  Parenting,  Time

    3 Tips to Make Your Marriage Thrive

    August 20, 2019 / No Comments

    Photo Credit:  Estee Janssens We hope this summer found you thriving, with plenty of time in the sun to relax and catch up with family and friends.  As these carefree days come to an end, we have some tips to help you continue to thrive. Fall gets busy —

    Read More
    Tom and Mary Frances

    You May Also Like

    Quarantine Romance

    April 27, 2020

    Keeping Your Marriage Sane While Quarantined

    March 30, 2020

    Keeping Up with the Jones’s

    August 26, 2019
  • Decision to Love,  Romance

    Dancing in the Kitchen

    August 12, 2019 / 3 Comments

    Janine:  This weekend we celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary!  Yay!   Ken was on call for work, so we couldn’t go far, and we didn’t want to try to go out for a nice meal, for fear that it might be interrupted.  Here’s what we DID do.

    Read More
    Ken and Janine

    You May Also Like

    Empty Nest – Syndrome or Summit?

    February 17, 2020
    super-power of affirmation

    The Super-Power of Affirmation

    February 26, 2024

    Verbal Judo – Harmonizing Your Tone of Voice

    September 14, 2025
  • Communication,  Finances,  Perseverance

    3 Ways to Affair-Proof Your Marriage

    August 5, 2019 / No Comments

    Adapted from: 3 Defenses Against Affairs, by William McKenna People are not getting married in large numbers and why would they? Statistics show that about half of all marriages end in divorce. Television shows and movies often depict marriage in a negative light while leading viewers to celebrate when a character has an affair like it is inevitable and desirable. While no two marriages are exactly alike, there are some very basic and proven ways to “affair-proof” your marriage.

    Read More
    Paul and Stephanie

    You May Also Like

    Slamming Cupboard Doors

    August 28, 2018
    signs pointing various directions

    Choose Your Hard

    October 10, 2022
    Common marriage mistakes

    Top 10 Tips to Ruin Your Marriage 

    March 23, 2026
  • Communication,  Conflict,  Time

    Taking Your Marriage on Vacation

    July 29, 2019 / 1 Comment

    Photo by Wilson Sánchez Nine years into marriage, we were planning to leave town to visit family after Mark worked a half day. Mel packed up the kids and the car, and Mark just needed to throw in his suitcase. Mark was delayed several hours at work. By the time we met up, we were both irritated and highly stressed and just

    Read More
    Mark and Mel

    You May Also Like

    Vulnerability

    Finding Joy Through Vulnerability

    August 28, 2023

    I Will ROMANCE You Every Day of My Life

    July 25, 2018

    Marriage: Our Security in the Chaos

    April 5, 2020
  • Communication

    Tone of Voice – Revisited

    July 22, 2019 / No Comments

    This post originally appeared one year ago, but has been re-posted for those who may have missed it the first time around. Something that we’ve become increasingly aware of in our marriage is how our tone of voice so significantly affects our communication – for better or for worse! It is remarkable how something so seemingly small can make such a huge impact on whether our communication is healthy, productive, and enriching or debilitating, disheartening, and provocative. Believe it or not, tone of voice is huge. WE would go as far as to say tone of voice is at the root of most of the small hurts we experience in…

    Read More
    Paul and Stephanie

    You May Also Like

    Overcoming Apathy in our Marriage

    October 12, 2020

    Just Go To Bed

    March 11, 2024

    Getting More of What You Want in Your Marriage

    February 21, 2021
  • Communication,  Conflict,  Decision to Love

    Anger, Over the Top

    July 15, 2019 / 1 Comment

    Photo Credit: Birgit Lengert We all know anger when we see it  — a clenched fist, a raised voice, a sullen look.  Anger can quickly surface and is readily expressed, but often it is a cover up for underlying feelings: 

    Read More
    Tom and Mary Frances

    You May Also Like

    Stale Crackers

    November 2, 2020

    Tone of Voice

    July 16, 2018

    The Benefit of the Doubt

    August 31, 2020
  • Romance,  Sex

    7 Tips to Improve Your Sex Life

    July 8, 2019 / 1 Comment

    Is sex a priority in your marriage? Sexuality is an important ingredient for a healthy marriage. Here are 7 tips to help….

    Read More
    Ken and Janine

    You May Also Like

    Loving Your Way through February

    February 1, 2021

    Dear Younger Us

    May 17, 2021

    Still Crazy After All These Years

    January 5, 2025
  • Communication,  Conflict,  Decision to Love,  Relatives

    Words – The Seeds of Life in Marriage

    July 1, 2019 / No Comments

    Paul: Until recently, I figured it was fine for me to say whatever was on my mind as that meant I was being truthful and authentic with Stephanie. Then it dawned on me that some of those words are hurtful and have the potential to wound her.

    Read More
    Paul and Stephanie

    You May Also Like

    Stale Crackers

    November 2, 2020

    In Sickness and In Health

    August 15, 2022
    To DO list with Take Time-out for US! Checked off

    Time-out!

    January 19, 2026
  • Communication,  Conflict

    Phones at the Dinner Table

    June 24, 2019 / 3 Comments

    While out to dinner recently we had a misunderstanding near the end of the meal.  I (Mel) was looking up information on my phone and showing it to Mark.  He was clearly disinterested, and I felt puzzled.

    Read More
    Mark and Mel

    You May Also Like

    The 5 “P’s” of Constructive Feedback

    March 29, 2021

    3 Life Lessons From the Movie ‘Wicked’

    December 9, 2024
    Loving Each Other in Spite of Our Differences

    Loving Each Other in Spite of Our Differences

    April 4, 2022
  • Communication

    Marriage Manners Matter

    June 17, 2019 / 5 Comments

    Photo Credit: Thought Catalog “Fine!” and “Whatever!”  These 2 powerful words have the incredible potential to bring nearly any discussion to a screeching halt.  They send the insensitive message of “I don’t care. Discussion over.  Period. Full stop!”   As married couples, we have probably used these or similar words.  And, if we have raised children we have probably employed time out, taken the car keys or other forms of discipline. Those 2 little words are not  the focus of this blog.

    Read More
    Tom and Mary Frances

    You May Also Like

    Changing Our Dance and Learning to Love It

    July 6, 2020

    How to Resolve Disagreements in Marriage

    June 30, 2025

    Radical non-Parenting

    November 9, 2020
3233343536

Categories

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive new content every week
Loading

Recent Posts

  • If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain
  • Memorial Day
  • Mistakes Made During Conflict
  • Running Up A Downward Escalator 
  • The BEST of Your Life

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2026 The Couples Post