Small, intentional rituals can transform ordinary routines into meaningful couple time. Rituals that resonate with our natural habits and desires, and nurture our relationship, provide a rhythm that makes our couple time a regular and positive activity without being a straitjacket.

Love is a very costly exercise, but it has great rewards and brings great joy. Having celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, here are our 10 keys to having a great marriage.

The princess longs for a good man who adores her, the knight for a lady worthy of such worship. Romance of this sort builds character and makes for better men and women.

Is our current model of marriage the right one? Is it here to stay? Or will historians one day look back and wonder: What were those neurotic, romantic fools thinking?  

As C.S. Lewis wrote, don’t lock up your heart in a "coffin of your selfishness". Instead, love those closest to you with openness and vulnerability. Familial love like this might just be the closest one can get to Heaven on earth.

Marital health is about more than minimising conflict. If we want to go from ‘good’ to ‘better’ we need to capitalise on the positives. Most marriage counselling and education focuses on conflict and incompatibility. It seeks to help couples find constructive ways of dealing with challenges in the relationship. It’s a ‘damage control’ approach that seeks to minimise the impact of negative experiences. Conflict management and relationship repair are important skills for every ...

When kids come along, Dad and Mum need to be even more intentional about coming together, communicating, and strengthening their marriage. What you need is a plan. A plan for making time for romance even though you’re both a little tired and distracted.

In 2019, Paak released "Make It Better", featuring Smokey Robinson — a sweet, phat track that contains much wisdom for us married men.

One of the most important resolutions we can make is to give our marriages and relationships higher priority. The most vital and satisfying marriages are intentional. They don’t leave their relationship to chance, but actively foster habits which deepen their intimacy.

If there is one piece of non-negotiable advice I have for all fathers, it is to forget your children for enough time each week to date the woman who mothers them.

These days, we rightly talk a lot about exploitation and abuse. It comes in many forms, and we worry we might walk past it without noticing. Recently 665,000 Australians not only walked past, but sat and watched something that we should recognise for what it really is – workplace exploitation abuse. The airing of ‘reality’ TV show Beauty and the Geek pairs beautiful, intellectually-challenged and relationally-hurt women with bright, socially-awkward, ‘virginal’ ...

I’ve found a solution to my perceived marital problems: it’s easy, you can do this too. Have a night away with the man of your dreams (this is not a reference to Ryan Gosling). I’m talking about your husband – remember when you used to dream about him? It was right before you started washing his socks and reminding him where the laundry basket lives. One night away with my husband ...

It’s true! And now there’s a study that proves it. Finally, I have the ammunition I need to convince hubby that our next date night movie should be a rom-com, rather than an action flick. Researchers who conducted a study involving 174 couples found that those who discussed five movies about relationships over a month cut the three-year divorce rate for newlyweds in half. Superior Choice Okay, so the research is ...

On Friday afternoon, we went on a bushwalk with Byron’s work colleagues. Although we were with other people, we so enjoyed the time together. Walking is remarkably therapeutic for us… perhaps it’s the natural environment, or maybe it’s simply the absence of the constant phone, email and text distraction. Whatever it is, is not the point. It just feels strangely normal and earthy. Like we are stepping for a few hours ...

Anything worth having is never free. As Francine and I raced around on a typical Saturday afternoon, we found ourselves at the local shopping village together. Never one to waste the opportunity to gain a ‘good husband’ brownie point, I declared we should have a ‘coffee date’. Naturally, Francine obliged — she practically never says no to a ‘date’, no matter how pathetic. (Have I ever mentioned my “do you want ...

The most powerful influence on a couple is their family of origin. Good or bad, our experiences in our childhood prepared us for marriage. The young couple sitting opposite us had been married only a few years. They were experiencing some health challenges, but this is not what brought them to us; they were locked in a perpetual low-grade argument that never seemed to end. They were so ‘wired’, almost every ...

“A lot of men feel pressured by Valentine’s Day. They don’t like being expected to do something romantic for their wife or girlfriend on an arbitrary date on the calendar. They flinch when their mate drops hints in early February about what flowers or candy she prefers.” These are the words of Professor William Doherty, one of the world’s most recognised academic authorities on marriage and family. He was one of ...

“For an increasing number of long-term marriages, it’s no longer a case of ‘until death do us part,’ it’s a matter of until the children depart from the family nest,” writes Rachel Browne in a Sydney Morning Herald article, “Parents wait until children go, then do the same thing.” Suddenly finding your busy life full of activities attached to children, and a home in a constant state of noise, and endless ...

One of the greatest challenges couples face in our contemporary age is the presumption of sexual excitement. When the romance wanes, marriages are at risk — but what’s a couple to do when passion is in decline? We’re all in favour of a vibrant and passionate sex life for couples — however, it’s not always easy to sustain the passion when domestic responsibilities make spontaneity and novelty an endangered species. Early ...

Falling in love is a common experience and a wonderful one. It sweeps us up in a euphoric passion that dominates our thoughts day and night. But is there more to it than simple emotions?   Romantic love, and its impact on us, has been the subject of study for millennia. Philosophers from ancient times have mused on it, theologians have divined it and poets have waxed lyrical about it.   More recently, it has become a subject of interest to scientists from the fields of psychology, sociology and neurobiology. Consequently, we ...