… Contrary to popular belief, successful married couples argue, but they take a gentle approach to start the conversation, and they know how to exit an argument if it begins to escalate, and quickly repair the damage.
… Traditional counseling encourages couples to give up their idealized view of relationships and romance, but that view has been challenged. The people with the highest expectations for marriage usually end up with the highest quality marriages.
… Several studies show marital satisfaction drops by 70% during the first few years after the birth of the first child, although later, having a child makes a couple less likely to divorce.
… It has become clear that many marital disagreements simply can’t be solved. In one study, researchers interviewed the same couples four years apart. They found that 70% were still talking and fighting about the same problems in exactly the same way as they were four years earlier. The result has been a push for “acceptance” therapy, encouraging partners to accept the enduring foibles of their spouses rather than trying to change them.