Who is in a happy relationship?

[RedSquirrel24]

I'm just curious, don't mean to cause offence either, but I'm single again, and feel that the majority of people I know in RL have very little nice things to say about their OH, so I just wanted to know who does have a happy relationship? how long you have been together? and what do you think makes your relationship work?.... Before I completely give up on the idea that I hope to meet someone, as right now I'm wondering if it is worth it or if I'm just going to keep banging my head against a brick wall trying to work out how the hell we are supposed to communicate and enjoy a relationship with the opposite sex!!!!

Us - been together over 20 years (how fast did that go?) and he drives me mad at times, but fundamentally all is good.

Yes very happy. I've been married for 15 years to my 2nd husband, my first marriage was hell.
We have so much in common, we met through friends pursuing mutual hobbies and interests.
We have our ups and downs like any couple of course, nobody never argues but on the whole we do very well.
It's us against the world.
He's 11 years younger than me so everyone said it wouldn't work but we don't notice the age difference any more.

Dowser

My dh has grown into himself . He's probably at his peak.

I think he was a bit nerdy when we were younger.

We probably would not have got together then. I've calmed down a lot as I've got older and he's loosened up a bit now....he wears an earring and jewellery he makes himself.

We've probably met in the middle.

( I even got him to a levellers concert a few years ago!)

Me. Been married 31 years. Still love him. He is one of the good ones.

I don't think I can claim much so far - less than a year in! So although I'm very happy, and he says he is too - it's early days for cracks to have shown yet.

But - he is kind, and I think this is a massive thing. We also share interests and outlooks on life and money.

I am not compromising - when I married, the sex was shit, I thought it would get better. It didn't.

I didn't go into this thinking he would change in any way, or excusing his behaviour to myself (cf crap sex husband - just sexually shy and I'd build his confidence, he'd had less partners than me. Turned out, he'd had hundreds - prostitutes hence not developing his technique )

So... The fundamentals are there. Sexual attraction, kind, giving, shared values and hobbies. He's also very loyal (20 years married to wife who died, and

Mine has adopted a lot of my hobbies....like jewellery making and dowsing

You can't say fairer than that.

Very happy, 3 years living together and 7 years as the ow prior to that. Exactly where we should be and no doubts about the future.

Hope it lasts cabrinha.

I married a widower as well ...fortunately one that was ready to move on!

DH is rather fab, he works PT (at a professional job, no cocklodger) so he can do his share of the childcare, does masses of housework and does lots of the day to day stuff with the kids (School run every day, attends most of the school concerts etc, is taking 2 weeks unpaid parental leave over the holidays because he wants the kids to spend time with one of us instead of being in childcare all holidays, does a fair share of the random days off to look after poorly children), incredibly supportive of my career, lets me be lazy and MN, good at flowers and chocolates on special occasions. And he's in his mid 40s, got all his hair and is still skinny and gorgeous. Pretty incredible really don't know why he puts up with me.

He's currently teaching DD1 how to play the ukulele while bathing DS.

Why does it work? Because he's fab and adores me and I'd rather spend the evening deconstructing the day with him rather than anyone else. We've been together 21 years.

I am :) We've been together for 18 years, married for 17.

We've had some really crap stuff happen to us & I think what has got is through it is learning to be direct & honest with each other. We don't play games & trust each other (I hope!).

(it was the obvious stuff that got us together - physical attraction, sex, wanting the same things in the same sort of timescale, valuing our strengths, while weaknesses were not deal breakers etc But I doubt we'd've made it this far if we hadn't been careful not to manipulate one another)

Me! We've been together 19 years and have three primary age DC. He's a lovely guy - caring, funny, thoughtful, hard working and a great Dad. I feel v lucky to have him.

FWIW I would say most of my friends have decent husbands. Some of them don't really do enough with the kids IMHO but work hard and I have a few friends whose husbands do the bulk of the childcare and hold down a professional job. I only know a few people who are divorced and none of those have been because of men having affairs or being general cockwombles, more of an incompatibility thing and in most cases even before they've got married their friends have known they're not a good match.

Having said that I do know there are shits out there, there's one man at work who has just been having an affair and apparently was going to leave his wife until the OW ended it when she met someone better. But he wasn't even loyal to the OW, he shagged someone else at the work Christmas Party and has a history of being a complete creep when drunk. Sigh.

Been together almost 12 years married 10. Very happy. We work as a team in everything. We talk, he really wants to know how my day has been and me him. He makes me feel beautiful even though my body has changed a lot since we meet (have had 3dc). We laugh together even in the tough times we can see the silver lining together. He puts up with my bad habits and doesn't hold them against me. He's just amazing and I love him more today then the day we married, soppy but true.

I am. DH gets in my bloody nerves sometimes and is a bit useless at chores etc, but he is a fab partner and father.

He causes me no problems, we only argue about mundane things like housework, he is kind, funny, he is my best friend.

We don't really have romance and passion and fireworks anymore but I'm not bothered about that and neither is he.

Oh and together 8 years, married 4, 1 DC.

I am. I am in a happy relationship with myself.

After living with unemotional, unaffectionate and unsupportive parents, then an abusive relationship on all levels, I am now enjoying my life alone.

I can make my choices, whether they be bad or good, no one gets to tell me what to do! :)

I'm in a happy relationship...more than happy in fact.
We have been together 4 years. In those 4 years we've gone through more than a lot of couples go through in a lifetime together. My DD (from a different relationship) had an accident in 2014 and was in intensive care in a London hospital. He stood by us and did everything for us. We've also had an ectopic pregnancy which caused my tube to burst and I nearly lost my life. We then lost our son at 21 weeks then that same year had a mmc. We've been through some bad patches due to all this but we went to counselling and we are stronger than ever. He is perfect and I honestly believe that all these things is why we are in such an amazing relationship. I can't remember the last time we argued, if we ever do we get out what we want to say then one of us will say 'love you' then it's over with.
He's an amazing parent to my DD and gets on great with my ex (dd's dad). I'm the luckiest person in the world.

Me. Together 9 years, married for 2 years. He is my best friend. I love spending time with him but we also have time out where we do our own things. We do have a lot in common but also things we don't agree on. I'm one of the very few lucky ladies who doesn't have to do any housework as he does it all.
We found out last year that we couldn't have children naturally due to him not producing any sperm. It's been a testing, painful year but I couldn't imagine my life without him in it.

Me. Together 3.5 years - we are so kind to each other and look after each other physically and emotionally. Moving in together next year.

I too kissed a few frogs including a very crap exh

Yes, together 17, married 13.

5 house moves, 3 children, very premature twins, 2 bouts of cancer. I think we've probably been through more testing times than most couples.

What makes it work? That ultimately, we want to be together and on the main, big decisions, we're on the same page. We've had some properly tough times, he annoys the crap out of me sometimes (and I am sure I do the same), we're opposites, but we made a decision at the outset that our family would be the most important thing, and we've both stayed true to that. He is genuinely the best father of anyone I know.

I am, 9 years.. We are best friends, joke around a lot, kind to each other, spend most of our time together and don't have huge expectations e.g. Expecting certain things on birthdays etc. We never criticise each other- weight, appearance etc. He's not a laddy, going out drinking type and we never give each other reason to worry about the opposite sex. It's just very relaxed and no stress. He always says I'm beautiful even now I'm hugely pregnant and my arse is the size of the moon!

Yes, been together nearly 19 years. He's fab, thinks I'm amazing, never doubted my ability to get on even though I did. He's still no idea how much difference that made to me after being married to someone who constantly put me down. My career since has been fabulous, we've raised 4 children( none of which are ours), they love each other and it's the thing I'm most proud of.
We laugh a lot, I caught him doing weird exercises in the bathroom a while back. I just pointed out he looked like Michael Jackson on the thriller video and we collapsed into giggles. I can forgive any amount of housework related niggles for that sort of connection.

Me. DH is absolutely lovely. Loads of mr wrongs before him but I'm glad about that, helps me to know what good looks like!

I don't have a bad word to say about my DH. I've never bad mouthed him to anyone; I've noticed that that seems to be the done thing for some people to cut their partners up in public.

We're together 15 years, married for 8 and I adore him, as he does me.