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Als wir noch jung waren ___ Vor seinem Elternhaus
When we were young ___ In front of his parents' house
So now I have the unique chance to give men a message from women. Excellent! But what am I supposed to say?
Last week I encouraged women to stand by and support their husbands. This week I would like to encourage you men to support your wives in their task of supporting you. :-)
When women get married and are in love, it is often the case that they really want to spoil the man and give him every possible pleasure. This tendency is certainly also present among men ... At least that's how it was for me, and I really spoiled Ernst for four years. And for four years we had heaven on earth. He was my everything. His wish was my command - or rather, his wish was my wish!
The more irrational expectations of the partner, the more likely the disappointments!
Because I inherently had a low self-esteem, Ernst was a really good catch for me, and I did everything I could to make him happy: it gave me great pleasure to make him happy, and that's how I got mine Self-esteem strengthened.
Our lives changed in a flash when we became parents. Suddenly Ernst wasn't the only one I was allowed to look after. A baby needs a lot of attention and all of a sudden I was looking after our little daughter 24 hours a day. Ernst was / is an exceptionally good father. But mostly the fathers care less about the children than the mothers, and Ernst was no exception.
With the first child he had felt his loss very much. With each subsequent child, my strength was distributed even more, so that their share of the cake became smaller and smaller. I think that's in the nature of things. Only, you don't imagine it to be that difficult beforehand. Most of the family series on television make everything seem a lot simpler.
It is beneficial to be able to look back on a happy time together, because children change the values of the new mother, which can also be a challenge for the father.
Ernst meant it well. He did a good job every day and came home regularly afterwards. He bought me my big dream house in the country. He wanted to make me happy. It was also very nice - but also very strict - a big house with lots of space, three children, lots of guests, lots of laundry, lots of shopping, lots of cooking, cleaning, renovations, games, music, lots of work ... time for everyone and everything - just too little time for the two of us.
During the week he was at work; on Saturday we didn't work and on Sunday mornings we always had football and we usually had visitors in the afternoon. So I threw the whole cart at home.
After work, Ernst wanted to rest and thought he had already done his job. But I often ironed or folded my laundry in the evening. I know I should have done it during the day. I should have finished my work - but it wasn't. I hadn't learned how to run a household like Swiss women do. In retrospect, I think I would have needed a course. Back then, I just thought I needed help. I was dead tired in the evening. He had said that I love my work so much and that I couldn't be without it. But I just saw the work and knew I had to do it, otherwise no one - or I - would do it the next day. But the next day was already fully booked ...
Receiving flowers from the loved one warms the heart of love.
He tried flowers ... Flowers are beautiful. I like flowers. But flowers are not my love language. He also usually brought me flowers on Friday afternoons. On Fridays I usually had special preparations: special meals for the evening and for Saturday - we often had visitors - last-minute cleaning and shopping, plus the preparations for the children's service program and the music service.
When Ernst came home with his beautiful flowers, I mostly wasn't finished and I actually needed help. But the flowers still needed additional care. But because I didn't have time to arrange them properly, I just put them in the water quickly. At some point he asked if I actually didn't like flowers at all ... He didn't understand that I wasn't really happy about them.
I would have been more pleased about his help. I've tried to explain this to him several times. Especially when he missed me in bed that evening because I was still working for a long time. I said that if he would help me we would be finished earlier at the same time and then I would also have time for him ... So we both missed each other and could actually have done each other good.
We knew that Ernst’s love language was <physical touch> and secondly <praise>. I thought I was the same until I got into trouble and needed help. From then on, my love language was <helping deeds>. But we didn't find out until much later.
The five love languages are not limited to the bed alone! However, celebrating togetherness can have a highly positive impact on the partnership.
In the meantime he has learned to put the cut flowers in the water himself and to arrange them, or even BETTER to buy a pot flower. By the way, we are currently visiting Italy. Ernst went to the market alone while I am sitting here in the sun with a wonderful view and writing. NOW he just happened to come up with a beautiful blue hydrangea. I enjoy that!
Blue is my favourite colour :-)
In fact, it wouldn't have been that difficult to meet both of our needs. He needed my closeness - also physically - but to have more time and energy for him, I needed his help. At that time we didn't know anything about the five love languages. We could certainly have saved ourselves some frustrations by doing this.
By the way, he not only learned to make me happy with flowers, but also encourages me wherever he can. He is also more receptive to my calls for help. I am very happy about it!
Our situation is certainly unique, just as every relationship is unique, with its special circumstances, needs and temperaments. But we would like to pass on the lessons that we have been able to draw from it so that you may benefit from it - at least that is how we hope.
In the meantime, we've figured out a good magic formula with a few very simple principles to bring the magic back into the marriage. I'll be happy to tell you about it another time. For today it would go beyond the scope.
So I would like to give you the following three tips in summary:
1. Find out your own love language and that of your wife, and see how you can complement and make yourself happy with it. Perhaps your needs match better than you think! (Ernst will soon be writing a blog about love languages.) The test can be found on the Internet.
2. Find out what your wife really likes - and act accordingly. Nicely dosed ...
3. Find out what annoys your wife - and do without it wherever possible.
It's easy, isn't it? I wish you success !
Book recommendation: LOVE & RESPECT Emmerson Eggerichs
Do you have any questions or comments?
PS. If you decide to comment, the program asks for your email address so that any reactions to it can be sent to you. :-)
