How to Holiday-Proof Your Relationship
Whatever the time of year, break ups are painful, heartbreaking and hard to deal with. But they’re especially devastating when they happen over the holidays. So why do relationships break down during the festive season. After all, isn’t it supposed to be a merry, jolly time full of love, peace and good will to all men?
Well the answer is that there are actually quite a number of contributing factors. The biggest and most obvious is probably financial strain.
Couples feel obliged to spend on luxurious, overpriced gifts in order to prove to their nearest and dearest how much they love them. Come on girls, we’re all guilty of giving purposely not too subtle hints about the presents that we just have to have, or just casually and repeatedly mentioning the pair of shoes that you happened to see, which by the way would look good with the designer dress that you tried on and absolutely cant live without.
While this may seem harmless, fun and maybe even cute to you, you might actually be putting a lot of pressure on your partner, and although you convince yourself that a new dress is a small price for your man to pay in order to make you happy, what if that dress costs you your relationship.
Christmas and New Year, although a time for celebration can be very stressful, and a lot of pressure is put on our partners to get everything right.
We want them to look presentable and speak well to impress our parents at the family dinner, we want them to come across sociable and laugh along with the jokes they don’t get at our friends Christmas party, and we want them to nod in the right places and look convincingly interested when chatting to colleagues at the Christmas work do. If they don’t all hell breaks loose.
What you have to remember is that Christmas doesn’t revolve around you. It is a time when the whole family gets together. So apart from you, your boyfriend is thinking about getting the perfect present for his sister who just had a baby, a thoughtful present for his mother who he wants to show his appreciation for and a useful gift for his grandmother who he guiltily, rarely sees. Now for us ladies not only is this very easy, it’s also fun, after all it’s just another excuse to shop. For men it’s not so enjoyable and it can actually be strenuous and exhausting. Adding pressure to your man by insisting that he do all these things just pushes him away, takes all the fun out of the holiday and can lead to a break-up.
So how can you holiday proof you relationship, and ensure that you see it right through Christmas, soar past New Years and beyond. Here are 5 easy ways to make sure you’re not sobbing over heartbreak and comfort eating on turkey when you should be enjoying the special day that ‘tis Christmas: