New Meme Alert! I’ve been wanting to begin a Happy Marriage meme for a long time (for married women and men) and it’s the first meme I ever created, but I’m very excited about it. I feel a strong marriage is the basis of a strong family, and as anyone knows, marriage takes work. But fun work. And this meme is dedicating a day to the fun work.
You know what isn’t optional? The rules…you have to follow these three rules every Monday to participate in this meme:
The Happy Marriage Mondays Meme Rules:
1. You can not be mean to your spouse, speak harshly to or criticize your spouse, neglect your spouse, roll your eyes at your spouse, or in any way interact negatively with your spouse, from sun up ’til sun down.
2. You must greet your spouse sweetly, with a smile and kisses hello and goodbye, and ask about his or her day. You must listen to their answer before interrupting or talking about yourself.
3. You may make your spouse their favorite dinner, bring them flowers, or take them out to dinner (but not mandatory every week).
Each Monday, in addition to the foundation rules, I’ll offer fun marriage advice and relationship tips (because I love to talk about marriage and relationships, how to have a happy marriage, building a strong marriage and family, etc). If you’d like to do more, come back and read, and then come back and share the results. If I see some great comments and I have the permission of the poster, I’d love to share some of the results in future posts as well.
Whether or not you join in each week for the additional reading and fun ideas, it’s a great idea to follow the first two rules on your own. Your spouse will be happier, you’ll be happier, your kids will be happier, even your dog will be happier. It’s nice to be nice to the people you love the most.
And your spouse will wonder what the heck happens to you every Monday. And hope it keeps happening. And start to consider Monday their favorite day of the week.
See? Mondays aren’t so bad…anymore. So check in each week for a weekly Happy Marriage assignment!
Okay I don’t think I have rolled my eyes at my husband yet. So I may be doing good for Monday. Maybe I’ll try to keep it up! Cute idea for a Meme. 🙂
wow. that first one is HARD all on its own! I started the love dare book a couple years ago and spent like 2 weeks trying to get day one (basically your #1) done RIGHT before I moved on accepting my best attempt at it. It’s sad but I’m such an eye roller and sarcastic, it comes out before I even think about it.
I’m an eye roller too. But at least I try to do it where he doesn’t see me ;(
Dear Penelope,
I love this. I’m not married, but I suppose this also applies to boyfriends too. Would love to hear about how you have taken the high road, resolved conflicts and what has helped make your home a happy and loving one. Keep up the good work my dear!
I ask this in genuine seriousness: Is number one even possible? Isn’t that like saying you cannot sin against your spouse for a whole day? Or am I reading more into the list? What if there is a disagreement or something that needs to be discussed and a disagreement ensues? Heated conversations, snappy responses can and do happen even when we don’t want them to.
I’m not sure if number one is realistic, but maybe I am being too skeptical?
Okay. This is a cute idea. I love idea of promoting happy healthy relationships. I will tweet this out for you so more can follow.
Number one is definitely possible, and surprisingly, gets very easy with practice. You get to a point where you wonder how you ever spoke to each other harshly (or if you never did, how other couples do).
There is no benefit to interaction in a nasty or negative manner. It’s just treating each other with the same respect and courtesy you showed each other when you started dating…you are kind to each other.
Obviously if a problem arises, you deal with it. I’m not talking about pretending there is no problem, or disagreeing. You don’t have to agree with everything, or refuse to discuss a problem. You just do so respectfully and in a positive manner (no name calling, sarcasm, or huffiness). You act like you have regard for each other’s opinions and feelings, kwim?
Fun and wonderful idea – I likely failed today – as we were traveling from visiting family over Easter weekend – 8 hours in the car…LOL
I’m following the rules so far! Can’t wait to read more next week!
How FUN! Mike and I arent married (we may get around to it one day, lol) but our “day” is Thursdays – we make a conscious effort to be extra sweet on Thursdays, and it is our weekly “date night” as well. I may add Monday in as well – two days would be a GOOD thing! 🙂 Subscribing now – looking forward to it!
This is a great meme! I’m looking forward to hearing your advice. I like to think my marriage is pretty close to perfect, but we can all use a little nudge every now and then to make things better. 🙂
I love this! So positive, right up my alley! I am divorced 🙁 BUT the divorce was hasty … we plan to remarry possibly on the same date that would have been our four year marriage anniversary (and five years together). Which is this May … something small like eloping. He has it planned (I THINK) but isn’t sharing the secret. I think we gave up too easily on each other. I am excited for this. It is easy to give up sometimes. We forget the reason we loved the person to begin with, start to focus on the negative and then that negative eats you up. I should have known better, negative energy can consume you and take you over in such a bad way. Positive energy is so much easier to deal with and helps you through situations like the year we spent ignoring each other instead of focusing on each other. (HUGS) can’t wait for this!
It’s true that we probably do roll our eyes or say something sarcastic more often than we should. Love this idea!
Ok you have me curious, but one week a month I’m not sure I can commit lol. I’ll look next Monday.
Kas
Great idea!
I LOVE that you guys are giving it a second chance! I love to hear things like that 🙂 If you loved each other, it’s so sad to lose it.
You know, this blog post makes me kind of sad. I know I’m not perfect, and no marriage is perfect, but being kind, respectful and generous with your spouse shouldn’t be so unusual that there has to be a reminder to do it once-a-week. It seems outrageous to me. Are people really treating their spouses so critically and purposely withholding affection? Why would anyone do that?
Wait, I reread what I wrote and I get that it sounds judgmental. It’s not meant to be. I just don’t know why we’re not *always* nicer to the people we love the most.