Ways to Support Your Friend’s Marriage
October 16, 2007 by Bald Man
Filed under Relationships
Inspired by Nicole’s comment here, let’s build a list together. I’ll throw out a few thoughts to get the ball rolling, and I hope you’ll chime in with your comments and additions.
Ways to Support Your Friend’s Marriage
- Give them time together – Things must change between you and your formerly single friend. Hopefully they won’t drop off the face of the earth altogether, but their availability for all the things you did pre-marriage will no doubt be reduced.
- Respect physical boundaries – Simply put: hands off. If your friend of the opposite sex has gotten married, learn how to pal around without being touchy-feely. It may be purely platonic between two long-time friends, but there’s no reason to push the boundaries and invite suspicion and jealousy.
- Get to know their spouse – Your friend has just entered into the most intimate relationship with the most amazing person. You don’t ever have to look at the new spouse the same way your friend does, but you owe it to your friend to be cordial and give their spouse the benefit of the doubt. At minimum the two of you have something in common, your friend.
Thanks for posting this!
Give advice carefully if your friend tells you of a relationship problem. For one thing, if you haven’t been married, there are things you don’t know. But you are a friend and you probably understand some things about relationships. Just make sure your comments are positive and will help build the relationship, not potentially make things worse.
Ralph,
I agree with you. Joining in on this subject too late, probably.
Give them support and good things to think about. Any marriage that is going thru problems is normal. A simple reminder that both spouses are good people and have made good decisions in the past. Support them to think about each other first. Think about the decision to marry and the good reasons that were behind that decision.
Greg