Wife Tips: Cohesion in the Home

Wife Tips:  Cohesion in the Home

First and foremost, in order to have cohesion in the home, one must assure her spouse that it is completely okay to buy the Sunday paper every Sunday, even though he only looks at the coupons and really doesn't read any of the articles.  In addition, one should never tease one's spouse for his choice in reading material (see photo).  To each, his own.  This really has nothing to do with cohesion per say, but it has everything to do with not bickering about the little things.  There really is no cohesion when people are criticizing all the time.

Secondly, in order to truly have cohesion in the home, one must always have communication regarding expectations.  I used this little tactic to set goals for myself every day (see photo below).  If my husband chose to attempt any of the tasks, he was duly rewarded (food, back rub, etc).  The key was, these were my goals (not his); however, he was aware that I always loved help, but did not expect him to do these tasks; therefore, when he checked off a task off my list (task completed), he was truly giving me the greatest gift of all (fulfillment of my language of love:  service). In the grand scheme of things, I really think it means a lot to him when I give him lists of goals for cleaning rather than nagging him to do things every evening.  This whiteboard has thus evolved into a list we create together -- common goals for keeping our home clean and tidy. Now, we work together to get these tasks done and honestly never annoy each other by assuming the other person is going to clean when really neither of us planned on it in the first place.  This is a way to communicate with as little annoyance as possible.  Come on, we both work -- sometimes the less "said," the better...especially on a weekday.

End Note:  cohesion is key.  Keep it together, sisters.

Sincerely,

Junkyard Happiness Wife