Marriage Preparation

“When mate works shift work and isn’t there much! All kidding aside, each person needs to have their own interests and time to themselves. Also when you live 2,000 miles from either set of parents.”

“Knowing your spouse very well before marriage; ideally they should be a close friend.”

“Having clear communication patterns and expectations, common religious commitment levels and a great sense of humor.”

“Knowing how to live outside of your own parents’ home. The ability to share and compromise.”

“For one thing, I think it would be great to almost treat marriage like a business that you’re running. It needs goals, a plan, it would be great to map out each other’s strengths to see who would be good at taking care of which responsibilities. And there needs to be re-evaluations of those goals, plans and how things are going with the responsibilities (jobs around the house, etc). That way, the expectations are reasonable and realistic. In that first meeting, make sure you can talk to each other openly about things that make you ‘tick’ - eg. leaving the toilet seat up, having the toilet paper go a certain way, etc. Also, make sure finances are talked about. And both should have a reasonable amount that they can spend without having to answer for it (eg $20/month/person).”