Advice for Newlyweds: 5 Practical Tips

You did it! The months of planning resulted in a stunning wedding day, and you have returned from a magical honeymoon. Now, it is time to settle into life as a couple. This is where the rubber meets the road, and you will truly become one – one household, that is. Advice for newlyweds can help.

Advice for Newlyweds: 5 Tips

Newlyweds experience heightened emotion and adrenaline in the early days of marriage. Settling down into the mundane aspects of living together takes some adjustment. It is normal to experience growing pains this season as you become more intimately involved in work schedules, household tasks, and habits that you each have developed independently and now must mesh together.

Give each other personal space

This applies both to your physical space and your time. Retaining your individual friendships is important, so let your partner have girls’/guys’ nights out without you. Do not micromanage your spouse’s other relationships.

Each of you brings your own tastes and hobbies to the relationship. Whether it be tools, craft supplies, games, or any number of things, communication about storage and decorative aesthetics is good to have when deciding how to organize your new household.

Work out a household budget

Nobody likes talking about money, but avoiding the conversation is a certain way to create conflict. Whether you join your bank accounts or not, you both need to decide how bills will be paid, how groceries will be acquired, and how to build up savings for the future you want to have together. Other things to work out include:

• Insurance coverage: health, car, house.
• Retirement plans.
• Fun money.

Discuss the division of labor in the house

The house needs to be cleaned, the cars need maintenance, and laundry and dishes are never-ending. If you are both working it will be important to discuss expectations about how things around the home will get done. Clear expectations prevent resentment from seeping into marriages.

Be united in your plan for extended family holiday situations

In the best cases, your in-laws will all be willing to accept whatever you can give them. However, if there is conflict with either set of in-laws you must support each other. Whether you choose to alternate years or can’t travel because of work, money, or anything else, you two are each other’s family. Other family members are secondary and should not be placed ahead of your relationship with each other.

Talk about sex

The best sex happens when partners build trust and communicate about sex. It takes time to learn what you each may like and dislike. There can be fear and anxiety around sex that you only discover after trying it. Sex is not going to be magically great the first or every time you have sex. One of you may have a stronger sex drive than the other. Be honest about fears, pain, desire, and other elements of sex. Also, if either of you feels pain during sex, seek medical help.

Counseling for newly married couples

Marriage counseling is not a sign of a marriage on the cusp of disaster. Instead, it can be much like an annual checkup for your body. Meeting with a counselor in Longview, Washington is an excellent way to establish healthy communication between you as a couple. If you are newly married, call us at Longview Christian Counseling today to get started on your journey of healthy communication in marriage.