My husband and I have had a recurring fight since the Clinton
administration. He has a habit of shedding his socks and leaving them, near —
but not in — the hamper. I ask why he cannot seem to reach the hamper. He
wonders why I turn this trivial matter into an issue. Cue fight; repeat for
decades. Another involves our divergent approaches to loading a dishwasher.
اضافة اعلان
Most people in relationships can name at least one similar
skirmish that breaks out regularly. A couples therapist once told me that two
of his clients had spent 20 years tussling over the “right” place to hang their
kitchen towel. I wonder, sometimes, if they are still at it.
I bring you the comforting news that even married Zen monks get
in these silly fights.
Patricia Lamas Alvarez, a couples therapist from South Pasadena,
California, said that these sorts of low-stakes but incessant fights were
“often about the little everyday things, like house organization, shared labor,
kids or chores, which can become a gridlock issue.” These squabbles can lead to
a self-reinforcing negative loop in which both people become fixated on
winning, she said.
How, then, do we resolve these spats? Maybe we cannot stop
having them forever, but there are ways to meet at least somewhat near the middle.
Check your factsThe next time your partner does something that sets you off,
Paley Ellison said, ask yourself: “What is the story I’m telling myself right
now?” Follow up, he said, by asking: “Is it true? How do I know it’s true?”
The story I tell myself about why my husband does not toss his
discarded socks in the hamper is that he is lazy. Or that he is cackling at the
thought of my disgusted face as I scoop them up. The reality is that he is
chronically absent-minded — the sort of person who once put a bag of garbage
bound for the trash bin into the back seat of the car and drove off.
Sometimes when you share the story you are telling yourself with
your partner, Paley Ellison said, it is so wildly off-base that you both have
to laugh.
What is bothering you?Pick a calm moment “and ask what this is really about,” said
Talal Alsaleem, a couples counselor from Rosedale, California. Both people
should get a chance to share their perspectives without interruption.
Then, try to explore what is actually bugging you. Because often
that fight is not really about the dishes. “It’s safer to fight about taking
out the garbage versus all the other things you should be fighting about,”
Alsaleem said. “It’s easier to focus on these issues because they’re a bit more
tangible than talking about feelings. It’s more difficult to say, ‘I don’t feel
we’re connected,’ or ‘I don’t feel that I’m valued.’”
Ease stress levels“I don’t like it when people wear their shoes in my house,” said
Dontea’ Mitchell-Hunter, a therapist based in Atlanta. “So I literally have to
tell myself: ‘OK, if they do this, is this the end of the world? Can this
problem be resolved? Yes, I can vacuum.’ So is it worth flipping out and
yelling about a problem that can be fixed with less stress?”
Sometimes it is easier on your mental health, Mitchell-Hunter
said, to accept some of your partner’s quirks. “Look at the whole picture,” she
said. “Surrender, and be like: ‘It doesn’t matter how the dishwasher is loaded,
as long as the dishes get clean.” You can be grateful your partner loaded it,
she added, so you did not have to.
Attack the problemYou may think it is ridiculous that your partner constantly gets
upset over something that seems trivial to you, but recognize that the feelings
it brings up are real.
When we are angry with someone, “that anger often objectifies
others, erasing their complex humanity,” Paley Ellison writes in “Untangled.”
Remind yourself, he said, that this person you love is in distress.
Then work to solve the problem by finding something that you
agree on, Alvarez said, even if your only starting point is “we agree that we
shouldn’t be fighting about this thing.” Already, she added, that signals that
you are collaborating.
From there, tackle the problem together. Try and find an aspect
of the issue that you both can be flexible about, Alvarez said. As you go
through each point of contention, offer a concession.
If you remain coolheaded and collaborative, the answer might be
right in front of you. If you can’t agree on the “correct” place to hang a
kitchen towel, it may be as simple, Alvarez said, as “one person gets a towel
their way for a month, and then the other person does.”
Maybe no one is ‘right’In the book “Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving
Relationship,” Terrence Real, a couples counselor, writes that many people
waste time and energy squaring off over the “true” version of certain events in
their relationships, when there is not one.
Being preoccupied with “ferreting out which point of view is
‘valid’ is a trap,” he writes. “There’s no place for objective reality in
personal relationships.” He says there may not necessarily be one true reality,
only two subjective realities.
And as a friend of mine told me, “I’d much rather fight about
how I leave my coffee cups all over the house than ‘Why are you sleeping with
Linda?’”
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