Are Expectations Killing Your Marriage?

We all approach life with a pre-loaded set of expectations: things that we assume will happen, or that we think we deserve. And heaven help us—and everyone around us—when our expectations go unmet. It’s a recipe for ten different flavors of misery like disappointment, resentment, anger and bitterness. Yuck.

When we carry around expectations in marriage, we’re really setting our husbands up for failure. If they meet our expectations, we don’t feel especially pleased or grateful because we expected it. But if they miss the mark—uh oh.

Granted, there are some things that we’re all entitled to expect in a healthy marriage like faithfulness, honesty and respect. But if your list goes a lot further than that, you’re likely sabotaging your own chances of marital happiness. Take a look at our guide to 5 Things It’s Okay to Expect from Your Husband to clear up your thinking about what’s fair or healthy to keep hanging over your mate’s head all the time. And since your husband isn’t a mind-reader, we’ve put together a list of 5 Marriage Expectations You Need to Talk About.

We expect you to find these useful. If you don’t, we’ll be disappointed. (Rats. There we go again…)