Family after Marriage

This past week we talked a lot about relationships within a family after marriage and before and after children. In most families, once the two people are married, they have a very high level of satisfaction with each other. After they have their first child and even during that first pregnancy, their relationship changes. The mother has a stronger relationship with the baby and the mother and father don't have as much time to spend by themselves. The satisfaction level continues to decline with each child and in most cases won't start to increase until the first child leaves the home. When the first child leaves, the parents start to have more time with each other than they used to. It reaches the highest level again once all of the children have moved out and the parents are "empty nesters". At this point they are able to rediscover who each other is and why they got married in the first place.

This pattern is not true for every family and doesn't have to be true for you. If both the husband and the wife engage the other in every step of their life together, they will be brought closer together. One important thing that they can do is to continue dating even after marriage. This give the husband and wife to be just that, a husband and wife. This helps to put aside the duties of mother and father and focus on their roles to each other. This will strengthen not only their relationship as a pair but also the relationships of the members in their whole family. Also, the mother should keep the father involved as much as possible with raising the children. This begins with pregnancy by bringing the father to doctor's visits, allowing the father to feel the baby kick, and anything else that will keep you close. Once the baby is born, the father should do everything he possible can to help the mother.

It is so incredibly important for the mother and the father to maintain a good relationship with each other while raising their family. This will help them to stick together and to provide the best possible environment for their children.