What keeps your relationship going strong?

[LoveMyGirls]

We're getting married next year and have been together nearly 7 yrs we're more in love now than when we met and having time off together over christmas has been lovely.

I'm just wondering about the couples that have been together for longer than us...

What keeps your relationship fresh?
How much time do you spend together?
What is your top tip on being in a very long term relationship?

Be big enough to apologise when you've done something crap.

Realise that relationships take a lot of work, and are never perfect.

Accept each others differences.

Have sex every day.

(That last ones not true)

(It should be twice a day)

laughing!!!!!!!!
we laugh alot together!!

If you can have ex every day. The intimacy and closeness makes people feel close to each other.

Keep the finances in order. Money pressure is a quick way to drive the enjoyment of sex away, because the distraction is usually constant.

Try to keep (as far as possible) a orderly home. If the bloke works and comes home to a disaster every night, he is less likely to want to come home if faces with the thought of working all day and then working all night (if he is the helpful kind).

Some blokes are not to observant, so if there is something that you like or enjoy, try to make it more obvious if he bloke looks like he isn't taking the hint.

If the sex dies for to long, it's hard to get back to feeling close.....feels like climbing up a hill. Try not to get to that problem.

once one of you has apologised, get over it - water under the bridge and all that

try not to go to sleep on an argument - or at least resolve it before you fall asleep then resume in the morning after kisisng and making up

and yes, have lots of sex - spontaneously if possible

Laugh together. Cry together. Remember that it is just as important to be polite to your partner as you are to the stranger in the street. So say please, and thank you. Even if what you want/they are doing are very routine.

Saying "yes, dear" and then doing what you would have done anyway.

sense of humour and always being able to talk about the problems, rather than ignore/resent them in silence.

we have been together more than twenty years now .

I think we truly value and work for each others happiness. It is amazing how important small gestures of kindness and consideration are. I absoloutely know without hesitation that my DH actively thinks of things to help me and make me happy all the time. And he knows that of me. Its lovely.

And we never scream and swear at each other. I think the fact that some people can see the closest relationship in their life as being something they can treat with less scruple than say their boss is sad. Once you have said hideous things you may be able to regret them and apologise for them but they undermine how you feel about each other.

10 years together, married since June 2007.

What keeps it fresh? We have a laugh, and like each other's company, that's it.

We spend alot of time together- we have the same friends so if we go out, it's usually together. We love watching films together, and like the same TV shows. We're actually only usually apart when working, but we occassionally go out without each other.

Top tip? Be friends- real friends. We are friends aswell as lovers and parents. I wouldn't be without him. I think i'd disintergrate without him!!

The same values and the same commitment to the family, putting that togetherness before anything else.

Being best frinds - be there for each other, and being other's strongest ally when life is sh*t

Laughing together

Accepting that life is not always a bed of roses, neither is it exciting all the time. Sometimes a weekend is just a trip to Asda and the hoovering!

Have to disagree with the sex thing. If sex is all you have, then you have nothing. The other things are far more important IMO.

agree with sex - it gives you the loopy hormones necessary to keep going. i'm not interested in being best friends without benefits. I get that with lots of people without having to time when I use the loo. (NEVER ever after dh).

Other than that my tip is having high expectations. Of him and me. And of him and me together.

And not being claustrophobic. Having a life outside of the marriage. But putting it first, ultimately.