What would you say is essential in a good relationship?

[pleasestopcarolling]

I' m not looking for perfect just basic essentiais without which you think a relationship wouldn't work.

[Offred]

It isn't your relationship, it is you using your beliefs about relationships based on what you have chosen in your relationship to very nastily put down someone else.

[Offred]

Someone else who is already feeling unhappy... For what reason exactly? You can't actually be bothered about her because you haven't asked her anything about herself, her feelings or her relationship, you've simply used it as an opportunity to parade the longevity of your relationship which is actually completely irrelevant to a post asking about what makes a relationship good.

[marriedandwreathedinholly]

Go back and reread my posts. One put down for which I apologised once I realised I had misread what the OP was inferring and about which the OP was gracious. You, on the other hand have fired back ever ruder and ever more disagreeably.

I am now disengaging from this thread and shall let you have the last word as you have very ungraciously turned it into something very personal against me.

I wishe you a happy new year and a very perfect future.

[MiniTheMinx]

There is a fundamental inequality btw men and women, it is historical and it can be found in all spheres of public and private life MarriedIn

One of the ways in which women are subjugated and disempowered by men/by society/the social totality in which we all live......is through the division of labour. Women as carer, mother, enabler, facilitator and support to man as socially/economically/politically empowered person. This is not equal as you can see. From what little info you have given about your relationship......it is easy to conclude (I'm a feminist) that your relationship is not equal, what it is.......is a happy life for you. I'm glad of that. We are all different. sometimes the political and the personal collide

Offred and married.......wish you all the best for the new year.

[Offred]

I read your posts, you said she sounded unhappy and you were sorry which is not an apology at allan extremely backhanded apology. You continued on after it with more smugness about your marriage and compromise as though it is objectively rather than subjectively required. However you haven't once asked her why it is she feels unhappy. I am happy because i have compromised ergo she must be unhappy because is not compromising enough how irresponsible that she won't keep her family together is how it comes across.

"One" is not required to compromise, nor is "one" required to remain in a relationship or a marriage which makes "one" unhappy or even in a relationship at all. Staying married does not mean a relationship is of good quality, a good quality relationship can occur without compromise if the partners involved have the same values, equally compromise is something that is involved in most people's relationships because people differ from each other, all of that stuff about compromise being necessary can also be really damaging to relationships.

Compromise, however, is not the same as priorities changing when something unexpected happens; a husband or wife cancelling a hobby to look after a sick partner/child is therefore not a compromise unless it is negotiated unwillingly, it is simply a change in priorities based on an unexpected event. If it has to be a compromise that's not really a great relationship because one is a need and one is a hobby.

A compromise over holidays might be going somewhere that ticks boxes for both but suits neither fully or taking turns, going to the other's or the children's favourite place because democracy rules is a sacrifice not a compromise. I'd think it weird if a parent felt a child-oriented holiday was a significant sacrifice.

That is why it is really unhelpful and mean to just announce to someone that "marriage is about compromise" and you are irresponsible if you don't do it, because that is simply your own choice about how you conduct your relationship and because you haven't asked anything about the op to know that's the problem. I think it is highly unlikely that anyone would be unhappy because they weren't compromising enough, people dont have to compromise or be made to compromise if they don't want to and people either want to compromise or they don't, they want to sacrifice or they don't and more often than not people are stressed and unhappy by too much compromise/sacrifice because that just indicates benignly; incompatibility or malignantly; some abuse.

It therefore comes across as staying together is the most important thing to you and based on your descriptions of your relationship on this thread - women have to suck it up for the sake of keeping their man and that this is the objective truth of good relationships rather than simply your personal view.

Your relationship may well be more equal than how you have described on this thread but I find it interesting that the compromises you mention you making are about taking on entire responsibilities because your dh doesn't fancy them and reciprocally your dh looking after his own dc when you were studying/cancelling a hobby when you were sick/him being ok about helping with the house when it is an emergency.... Not particularly equal examples because they convey that in order to be let off a shared responsibility, even one that he has passed completely to you, you need to have an important reason, whereas he just doesn't fancy stuff.... And this is ok because he told you what you could expect before you married and you were happy with it. It is more about attitude than anything, it sounds as though although he considers himself superior you also consider him superior and therefore you are both happy with an arrangement where he is in practice superior. That's the impression I have got from the way you describe your relationship.

[Dottiespots]

Im sorry but no one has the right to tell another person that their relationship is not equal. Each couple defines their own relationship and it is not for another to judge.

[Offred]

I said what she has described here doesn't sound like equality, but of course people can point out when a relationship is not equal, half of this board is taken up with really unhappy, unequal relationships women thought were happy and equal, and posters do precisely that; point out things are not so equal as they thought. The only reason married's relationship even came into it is because she was using it to harm someone else by making out her way of compromising and her choice to conflate long with good was the way to conduct a relationship.

[Dottiespots]

Someone said that Marrieds relationship was not equal . Married believes that her relationship is equal. No one else can tell her that her relationship is not equal cause we do not live in her shoes. If Married believes her relationship is equal then it is. What others think is just that....what they think.....their opinion. Not trying to take sides or anything just dont think its fair to tell someone that their life is something other than what they say.

[Kione]

Things in common
Respect
Physical attraction
Shared sense of humour