Common examples of stressors in what many family law experts now call “low-conflict marriage” include things far less dramatic than a crippling drug addiction within a family, acts of domestic abuse, the onset of a mental illness, or a sudden job loss. Instead, they involve factors more centrally related to the gradual dissolution of a married union over time — things like growing boredom, a progressive lack of intimacy and the loss of passion.
The following tips are offered for helping remove tedium from low-conflict failing relationships:
Make time for each other. Create or re-create boundaries that set up “together” time and bar external distractions to moments reserved for each other.
Sacrifice at times. Consider whether a new opportunity or challenge may be more worthwhile to you individually than it is to you and your spouse together. Is it worth taking time from your relationship and risking a new barrier to your partnership?
At times, difficult conversations are needed. If one partner is unhappy with the way life is flowing, then a discussion with unchecked honesty that results in meaningful changes — sometimes minor, sometimes material — is needed.
Of course, statistics clearly indicate that many marriages are marked by far more than low-conflict issues and are simply not salvageable. In many cases, divorce is a rational decision that benefits a couple far more than does staying together in a marriage that is consumed by anger, frustration and sometimes domestic violence.
If you are a Miami-based resident with questions or concerns regarding divorce or another family law issue, contact an experienced Florida attorney for answers and diligent representation in your matter.
Related Resource: Kansas City Star, “Till tedium do us part: Couples who want to avoid divorce had better sweat the small stuff” Sept. 8, 2011