MEN SHARE A SKILL OR TIP FOR HAVING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP _ On reddit someone posted: Men in happy marriages, what is one thing or skill you would teach other men to have good relationships?
• It’s never you vs. your wife. It’s you and your wife vs. the problem. You’re always on the same team.
• Active nondefensive listening. Your primary responsibility is to protect your woman’s heart and to make her feel safe even in hard conversations. Dump any baggage that interferes with that.
• Avoid keeping score. Don’t compare who did the most chores, who did the most romantic things, etc. You’re a team. The more you can view it that way together, the better.
• If you wouldn’t say it or do it with your spouse standing next to you, don’t says it or do it. This is more about how you talk about your relationship or spouse with other people.
• Don’t stop dating each other.
• Be ready for seasons where each of you will have to step up more than the other.
• Don’t do things begrudgingly. ‘Doing the right thing’ and ‘doing the right thing with the right attitude’ are totally different things. If she asks you to do a chore you don’t want to do, do it and be pleasant about it. Scoffing around while you do it is just a one-way ticket to fightsville.
• Have scheduled check ins/family meetings about joys, concerns, money, future plans, etc. Put these meetings on the calendars.
• Add everything to your smartphone calendar and make sure annual events are scheduled to repeat every year. Add not just your appointments but hers — dental visits, nights out with her friends, her company’s holiday party, the walk in the park you promised you two will do on Sunday.
THANKSGIVING FOOD COMA IS REAL, BUT DON’T BLAME THE TURKEY _ Every Thanksgiving, you get that woozy, snoozy feeling after the big feast. In some households, jockeying for the best couch position once the table is cleared is practically a contact sport. Blame it on all that turkey. Right? Sort of. A researcher at Penn State University said the food coma phenomenon that people may experience after Thanksgiving dinner is real. The popular scapegoat is tryptophan, a naturally occurring amino acid in turkey. But the researcher said you would have to eat 100 turkeys to get enough tryptophan to make you that sleepy. The real issue is not so much what you’re stuffing into your mouth, but how much: “What you’re eating is actually inducing inflammatory proteins know as cytokines and other substances produced in the body in response to this mega meal.” Eating too much releases those inflammatory molecules in the blood, which then tell your brain to rest.
UNPOPULAR OPINIONS _ Everyone has an unpopular opinion, like thinking a particular hit movie or TV show isn’t funny or all that good. Good discussion for the upcoming holidays to get the conversation going!
• Nate Bargatze isn’t that funny.
• The Rolling Stones are not one of the greatest bands of all time.
• Taylor Swift cannot sing.
• Coffee is overrated.
• Hamilton is overrated.
• Pumpkin spice anything is terrible.
• Mac & Cheese is gross.
