Don't Hog the Blanket

Look at most marriage books and they'll give you 250 pages' worth of stuff you're supposed to do to improve your marriage. That has its place, of course. But we felt it was time to explain what people need to stop doing to improve their marriages. Just resist the urge to engage in the following activities, and you'll be half-way there. For once, your mate will thank you for being a quitter.

1. Don't use a kitchen knife to remove staples, tighten wood screws or apply spackle.
   
2. Stop fiddling with the thermostat.
   
3. Don't show your seven-year-old how to start a fire using sunshine and a magnifying glass.
   
4. Think twice before complimenting your wife's best friend on her new hairstyle.
   
5. Watch less football.
   
6. Decide not to describe, in excruciating detail, every plot twist in your day.
   
7. Declare a seven-day moratorium on surfing the Internet.
   
8. When company comes over, resist the temptation to entertain them with your Ricardo Montalban imitation.
   
9. Don't hog the blanket.
   
10. If you get up first, don't sing in the shower.
    
11. Don't run a chainsaw before 8:30 a.m. or after 10 p.m.
    
12. Stop rummaging around in your wife's purse.
    
13. Don't leave nail clippings anyplace but the wastebasket.
    

What have you stopped doing, and found that it revolutionized your marriage? We're dying to know, and we'll print the top things spouses should quit doing in a future issue. Send them to:

I Quit!
MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP
465 Gundersen Drive
Carol Stream, IL 60188

e-mail:mp@marriagepartnership.com
fax: 630/260-0114

1998 by the author or Christianity Today/Marriage Partnership magazine. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mailmp@marriagepartnership.com.

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