Couples in Quarantine: How to Grow Stronger, Stay Sane, and Get Through This Together
If you and your spouse are like most Americans right now, you are stuck at home together, all day, every day. The verdict is still out on how this season of quarantine will affect couples. People are making jokes about a coronavirus baby boom, but they are also seriously questioning if their relationship can weather such a trying time. It’s too soon to know how this will affect couples, but you are probably feeling a change or some tension in your relationship right now, especially if you are cooped up with your spouse and kids.
Our tendency during difficult times is to try and get through it as quickly as possible. But I want to encourage couples to not just get through this hard season, but to grow through it. We are all facing something unprecedented in our history. It will test us, but it will also teach us who we really are: resilient, strong, courageous. This applies to our relationships too. By implementing a few simple principles and practices, couples can grow through this time together, rather than grit their way through.
Don’t blame.
It isn’t your spouse’s fault that a stay-at-home order has been placed in your city. It’s not his or her fault that you have to work from home now, or that you lost your job. When stress is high and things are uncertain, it is human to look for someone to blame and right now, the most convenient person to blame is the one in your household. Deep down you know this isn’t your partner’s fault or your kids’ fault or your fault. Everything feels out of our control right now because, in a way, it is. What you can control is how you treat the loved ones in your household. Don’t treat them like it’s their fault your life has been turned upside-down. Treat them the way you want to be treated during this time.