"For marriage to be a success, every woman and every man should have her and his own bathroom. The end."
- Catherine Zeta Jones
It's easy to diss your ex. But, acknowledging that really does take two, what were your shortcomings in the relationship? What will you do differently next time?
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If I get a do-over and remarry, I hope I will be a different kind of wife. A better wife. This is how I will be in my next marriage:
- Be more adoring.
- More appreciative.
- I won't nag.
- Or pick.
- We'll have separate bank accounts.
- And a prenup.
- I won't talk trash about his family. Even when he's going off about his alcoholic, abusive, philandering, compulsive-lying relatives, I will keep my pie hole shut.
- Let stuff go.
- Let lots and lots and lots of stuff go.
- Ensure we have enough real estate so everyone has space that is exclusively their own.
- Always earn enough to support myself and my kids by myself.
- Believe that my career and income are just as important to his -- even if I earn less.
- Laugh about his annoying habits.
- Laugh at my habits he finds annoying.
- Accept that his shortcomings -- small or large -- do not reflect on me. (Unless those shortcomings are really bad.)
- Fight fair and fast.
- Let stuff go.
- Make sex a priority. No matter what.
- No intentionally farting in front of each other.
- Or using the bathroom with the door open.
- I won't expect him to change.
- I'll compromise more.
- And listen more.
- Let him have his way more.
- Put my energy into what is good in the relationship, and not dwell on the other things.