Is there tension in your relationship because you don’t agree about how certain issues should be handled?

A few years ago, when my babies were both under two, I was a fairly unhappy SAHM. I was sitting on the couch one morning nursing my baby. My son was sitting in his high chair eating oatmeal – plopping spoonfuls of oatmeal onto the kitchen floor. My husband was downstairs doing what he loves – sleeping as long as possible before it was time for him to go to work. I was angry and resentful and when he came upstairs I tried to share my anger as carefully as possible, “I don’t it’s fair that I’m up hours before you taking care of the kids while you’re still in bed.” His response was, “That’s what you agreed to when you decided to be a SAHM.”

Can you imagine my response? I was not pleased. But what I realized is that we had never explicitly talked about what this shift in our family responsibilities would look like for us. And what we each expected was VERY different.

Now, whenever there is a shift in our family schedules and responsibilities (which seems to happen nearly every week) it’s critical to discuss and agree about what is going to happen so that we can proactively prevent the anger and resentment that is guaranteed when we aren’t on the same page.

In this episode, I dive deeper into how to approach an agreement and four points to remember when you need to improve agreement and follow-through.