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How have you achieved a happy marriage AND kids??

84 replies

Rivoli · 06/06/2019 17:43

Just been reading another thread where a woman got absolutely mauled for saying how wonderful her husband was, and other posters were saying things like "just wait till you have kids" and calling her boasty etc. I also had a separate conversation with 2 friends recently who both said their marriage went down the drain as soon as kids arrived.

Are there ANY couples out there who are still happy / in love / generally content even after babies arrive? We are TCC and I am always worrying about how a DC will impact our relationship.

Obviously the challenges of having a DC are colossal / vast / enormous / life-changing - and I don't need to list them all on here. A change and challenges in the relationship / marriage are to be expected. But is it possible to remain generally happy in your marriage and loving with one another? Has anyone done this, and if so how?

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 07/06/2019 08:10

Yes, but I think we cheated a bit, because I already had DS1 when we got together (he was 2) and got married (he was 5), so we already had that sense of what we would be like as co-parents and DS2 has just sort of magnified the luuurve in a really sickening way (sorry :o) and also we were quite lucky in that we seem to match well on some important points.

I think you need some stuff to just be there, you can't force it, if it's not there it just won't work. Shared/compatible worldview and values. Mutual respect. Emotional healthiness aka not being abusive/controlling/overly insecure. Or just owning your own issues, not making them your partner's problem - general relationship health stuff, not necessarily perfect mental health.

You've got to both be proactive about responsibility and see it as your thing - you can't be like "Not my job" because that is essentially saying "It's your job, that's beneath me" which is a huge fuck you to your partner. Goes for housework, cooking, household admin, financial stability, pet care, anything like that. Doesn't need to be a strict 50/50 split, actually I think a flexible ebb and flow approach to this kind of thing is more of an indicator of it being fair because it implies you're not having to constantly police who is doing more/less.

About what you can consciously do -

Never be in competition. Don't play tiredness bingo and don't wish that the baby will play up for them. You are on the same team so do what you can to make it easier for your team mate. And ask when you need them to make things easier or relieve you.

When you disagree, it's not about winning/who is right. Try and each distil your own position down into what the most important parts are and see if there's any way you can get the two to mesh. E.g. at 5 months you are co-sleeping and your partner wants to sleep train. You can argue about which approach is beneficial endlessly in circles or you can say - it's important to me that we don't leave the baby to cry, and also I don't have the energy to implement some kind of plan in the middle of the night, he says - it's important that we get some more sleep, the solution might be separate bedrooms for a bit/alternate lie ins at the weekend, some kind of sleep plan that doesn't involve crying, a promise to reassess if no improvement by 7 months, etc. But you can easily get sucked into "THIS is the way we solve it" and butt heads.

Remember the respect that you have for your partner aka why you married them/had a child with them. So don't assume that you're right and they are automatically wrong/stupid/don't understand - their point of view is probably relevant too. I see a lot of people sniping at their partner "not getting basic things" whether it's that he doesn't follow the sterilisation guidelines you do (guilty) or that he can't pick a matching outfit. You've essentially got to trust them to be competent. Which means respecting it when they make decisions differently to you, and also not giving them a string of instructions all the time, let them make mistakes, it's fine. Don't hole yourself up on the net also getting pulled into elaborate belief systems about various aspects of childcare. If you feel this is happening then either step away or invite your partner to read some of the stuff you are reading and see what their take on it is as a sort of "sanity check" - because you respect their opinion. NB it doesn't mean you can never tell them "I'd prefer it if you didn't do that" but it does mean don't assume that you have total veto - be prepared to see it from their point of view. Prob a good idea to get into a habit of checking with each other if you're both OK with new things.

Be flexible - parenting is impossible to imagine the reality - if something isn't working you have to be open to changing it. It's not a failure. Talk about short-mid-long term plans and various options for them, regularly.

Actively defy sexist stereotypes - parenting is really sexist - it's a good idea to try just as a thought experiment specifically imagining and discussing how opposite-sex roles would work for both of you e.g. dad being stay-at-home parent, mum being breadwinner, or mum's work being sacrament while dad drops to flexi time, deals with pick ups and drop offs, sick days, assemblies, or works part time. You don't have to do it, but it really helps to discuss it.

IMO if you find you're in a relationship (before kids) where any of these seem impossible because of how your partner is you will not be happy after kids. If you're always in competition (even jokingly), if you/they aren't prepared to compromise, if you don't actually respect them or believe them to be competent, if they are inflexible, if they are strongly attached to gender roles. These are red flags and make it really difficult to co-parent happily.

PaulHollywoodsSexGut · 07/06/2019 08:35

Amazing post from @BertieBotts

All I’ll add is also “pick your battles”.

I literally have to think “truly is it worth it” when DH has

a) dressed the baby like he had a blindfold on
b) ordered yet another coffee grinder from Amazon
c) decided that dill is definitely the best herb to add to pasta carbonara

Confused
CostanzaG · 07/06/2019 08:43

Bertie makes some excellent points. Parenting is sexist and the couple's I've seen struggle have been those that ended up falling into gender stereotypes because that often means inequality.

I've always said one of the things that attracted me to my DH was the fact he'd one of the biggest feminists I know. Parenting has always been a joint effort. He took DS to baby groups and was often the only man there but he never cared.

Another thing that's really important is if you both go back to work.....don't fall into the trap of thinking the highest earners job is always more important. This is often the man's job and can mean the lower earner (woman) ends up being default childcare for sick days, pick ups etc.Try and share them as fairly as possible.

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Loopytiles · 07/06/2019 08:45

Does your H to a fair share of domestic work, including the ‘mental load’?

How does he react when he doesn’t get to do something he wants to do?

Loopytiles · 07/06/2019 08:46

Much comes down to whether or not the man is sexist and puts his own interests first.

CassianAndor · 07/06/2019 08:57

communication is key, and not going to bed on an argument.

we have one DD (and that probably makes a big difference, just having one) but a lot of other shit going on, but he is a wonderful husband and father (better than I am a wife and mother, tbh) and I love him to pieces.

He does, however, sound a gazillion times better than 99% of husbands I read about on MN. When DD was a newborn and I was struggling with feeding etc, even once he'd gone back to work he did all the washing, cooking, cleaning, shopping. He made me a sandwich every morning so I wouldn't even have to make lunch. Glass of water and cup of tea in arm's reach. All without me ever asking him to.

We look after each other.

MoodLighting · 07/06/2019 09:03

I think the tricky times come when it's kids plus something else: life changing illness, caring for parents, mental illness. That's when the going gets tough because there's just so much strain.

Damntheman · 07/06/2019 09:10

Married 12 years (next month) with a 2.5 year old and an almost 6 year old. So far at least we are still blissfully happy together! It's very important to be able to recognise that the other is also fucking knackered and just do your best to support each other rather than feel resentment and put yourself first. If BOTH partners can put the other first then you'll be okay :) Be a team! Try hard to ensure both partners get down time. Take some time to consider contentious issues before talking about them which should give you the chance to talk about them calmly. Compromise compromise! It'll be okay

BlueJag · 07/06/2019 14:29

We've been together 30 years this weekend and it has been a great relationship.
One thing that really helped was we waited to have a child. We lived in many places, had a lot of fun and we are genuinely very happy. I'm not saying everything has been smooth or easy but we were alone for 16 years before we had our son.
I think he is super cute, very funny and a great friend.
I can also tell you nobody can get to me as much as he does.
We were ready for a family we've done everything we wanted to do alone.
In 4 years our son will be going to university so we'll be alone again. We are looking forward to have more adventures together.

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