Marriage and Family'
Turn your daughter-in-law into a daughter-in-love
Mothers-in-law have been the butt of many jokes and unkind depictions. Mark Twain summarized the common disdain for mothers-in-law quite succinctly, “Adam was the luckiest man; he had no mother-in-law.” Yet, the relationship between mothers-in-law and [...]
Help your senior parents be kinder to each other
Most people assume that age and familiarity help long-term couples develop a kinder, gentler and sweeter communication style. When elderly pairs fight, bicker or argue their adult children often feel uneasy and are bewildered about how [...]
Retirement is not an end but a beginning
Due to increased life expectancy retirement is no longer viewed as just the cessation of employment, but as the start of one’s third chapter in life. Our extended lifespan challenges us to plan for the senior [...]
How to extricate yourself from real or perceived loneliness
Feeling lonely is uncomfortable and even frightening. It is a universal emotion meant to propel us to seek social interaction and connection with others to secure our safety and underscore our worthiness. There is a distinct [...]
Hey seniors: Extend your lives by walking and reducing TV watching
The quest for healthy longevity is commonly associated with good genes, avoidance of life-threatening conditions and luck. We also know that lifestyle options may extend our lives by eating right, exercising our minds and bodies, maintaining [...]
The family who vacations together bonds together
The merits of healthy family connections have been widely researched and are well known. There are immense health and psychological advantages to members of all generations who share quality time with each other. One wonderful way [...]
Blending telecommuting into your family
With current technological tools and companies’ cost cutting focus, more employers are offering part or full time telecommuting jobs. Avoiding extra commuting time and hassles and being with family are two big draws for workers to [...]
Choosing to retire? Do it wisely
When you have the option to retire and can afford to do so, it would be wise to consider several issues that could significantly impact the quality of your new life. How will you replenish various [...]
Restoring harmony between sisters-in-law
The relationships between members of the original family are often challenging enough and may get even more complex when adult children marry. Yet, why do some sisters-in-law, who as women define themselves by their relationships, develop [...]
Marriage is an all-around benefit
As challenging and difficult as marriage can be, it is still a most advantageous commitment for both partners. Marriage graces its bonded pairs with blessings of health, longevity, emotional wellbeing, better sex, happiness, greater wealth and [...]
When she earns more than he does
As the number of dual family earners has increased, so did the percentage of women earning more than their husbands. How have these changes affected the quality of these marriages and the satisfaction levels of the [...]
Staying happy during the holiday season
The holiday season often evokes a range of emotions from joy to sadness, from gratitude to compassion, from generosity to practical concerns, from sharing to saving, from pleasing others to conserving one’s energy, from true pleasure [...]
The joys and challenges of family gatherings
Holidays bring families together. It is often a mixed blessing of balancing the joys of togetherness and belonging with the challenges of getting along with others’ personalities and styles. Belonging, as Dr. Maslow proposed, is the [...]
Do personal friends help or hurt your marriage?
While it is advocated that people develop individual friends to enrich their health and psychological wellbeing, some spouses are disgruntled about a non-romantic, close relationship that their partner may have with a friend. Dr. Marks’ book, [...]
How to create a healthy remarried family
Remarried families constitute a couple and one or more children from a previous union. It is synonymous with stepfamilies. Achieving an emotionally satisfying relationship between all parties of the newly constructed family is a long and [...]
The emotional price of war to military families
War is a horrific experience. Even the most patriotic, mission driven and idealistic military men and women can become profoundly traumatized by it. The emotional toll on deployed individuals and their families is life altering. Even [...]
How couples can best prepare for retirement
Retirement is a personal experience, yet it is also a couple’s event. How mates deal with their later life planning makes a great difference to their personal happiness and the comfort they continue to receive from [...]
How to make your second marriage better
All marriages have their challenges. Second marriages have additional difficulties stemming from the fact that they are the new attempt at relationship bliss. One might expect that having done it before affords second timers the experience [...]
The challenge of being a stepparent to adult children
Developing a good relationship with stepchildren living at home is a challenge. However, it is not nearly as complex as forging a healthy relationship with adult stepchildren. Your new partner’s adult children have many psychological incentives [...]
The challenges of becoming an adult stepchild
Divorce of parents is often a very difficult adjustment for children at any age. Many parents postpone their parting until their children leave home to spare them the day-to-day loss of the family unit. Yet, even [...]
