How do you maintain your relationship with your spouse?

[jesschan]

I think it is important to create couple time with your spouse and sometimes one party needs to make some sacrifices. For me, I quit my job in order to look after the kids and have a more flexible time. At that time, my career was going uphill but I was feeling exhausted all the time and it became very challenging to spend quality time with my family.

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Maintaining a good relationship needs consistent effort. My husband is seldom home for dinner as he often works late but we have breakfast together everyday after the kids go to school and I will leave some simple home cooked food or soup at night if I do cook. On Saturdays, we will deposit the kids with my mum for a few hours and we practice golf at the driving range, go shopping, take a dip at the swimming pool or simply laze at home. Once in two months, we will dress up and also go for a nice dinner and have drinks while the children are left with his mum. Occasionally, he will also take half or one day leave and we go for walks or played golf while the kids are in school. Sometimes, we also watched a midnight movie at the nearby cinema while the kids are sleeping. On top of that, we go for a short overseas trip without the kids at least once a year. We are very lucky to have very supportive parents who can help to look after our kids when needed.

[luvmum]

Both my hubby and me felt that we drifted, that's why we make every Friday our date day. However tired, we still go out and leave kids with mum. What we do...hmmm exercise, have a good dinner, watch show or sometimes when either he or me need to work late on Fri, we just go for a real late dinner and chat anything under the sun and watch other parents in a great mess bringing kids out. Haha.... :celebrate: Thereafter we will pick the kids home abt 10 plus. Though really dead tired but we enjoy ourselves as these are time for ourselves.


FYI we have married for 6 yrs this year and since bb arrived 1 yr after marriage, we haven't been going out together. It's really unhealthy that's why we need to improvise. We even tried once going to JB for massage together. Though we come back by late evening, still we feel like courtship again.

It's important...dun just brush it aside and keep saying no time for this. Time is what you make it to happen.

[winth]

Oh, another thing - if you want a hubby to come home for dinner, feed his stomach first!


I've learnt so many things from my tenant about a successful marriage and I'm into boiling soup for the family. Keeps everyone healthy and hydrated!

Had been having cooked soup (broiled for at least 20-24 hours in a magic cooker) for the past 2 weeks. Works miracles! Just got to boil the soup for 30-45 mins the night before and the soup will self-cook in the magic cooker. So that saves alot of time for me. I prepared boiled vegetables too, darn healthy. Took only half hour extra to prepare. We dun take alot of meat, it's usually more veg for us.

Just 2 days back, after everyone came home, we sit together as a family for our 'healthy' dinner - cabbage, boiled soup and a hard-boiled egg each. The kids loved it (made so much noise to tell you that it's delicious), hubs kept asking for more soup and I am a happy mummy! :lol: It's the first time DS2 (2 year old) is able to sit through his dinner and finish all his food. DS1 offered to wash the dishes after that.

They loved my egg omelette rice too (japanese style).

[jedamum]

winth:

They loved my egg omelette rice too (japanese style).

ooo....I want idiot-proof menu to healthy eating! wait...let me get my own kitchen first...
I can only do pasta... :oops:

i joke a lot with my husband...that's our way of communication :love: ; you don't have to have common topic to make healthy fun of yourself and your husband...but you must be sharp enough to know when to tease/say the joke la!

[winth]

jedamum:

ooo....I want idiot-proof menu to healthy eating! wait...let me get my own kitchen first...

I can only do pasta... :oops:

Should start a healthy eating lifestyle thread then more forummers can contribute.

I'm searching for ideas for healthy food with minimal preparation time too!

Pasta takes up a lot of time, need to cut those button mushrooms, boil the pasta and paste separately. I like pasta but they dun really enjoy it, dun understand why.

We like to have steamboat with shabu shabu, shitaka mushrooms, japanese noodles etc. Just wash and cut, easy to prepare.

[schellen]

winth:

Pasta takes up a lot of time, need to cut those button mushrooms, boil the pasta and paste separately. I like pasta but they dun really enjoy it, dun understand why.


We like to have steamboat with shabu shabu, shitaka mushrooms, japanese noodles etc. Just wash and cut, easy to prepare.

I think my pasta takes much shorter time to cook. I use everything from can or jar. The longest to cook is the pasta. I like pasta and so does my family. I don't even need to prepare the meat cos I just buy turkey ham and shred with my fingers. In fact, my chinese coooking is \"can eat to live\" kind but my pasta tastes much better.

Steamboat washing up so troublesome.

[jesschan]

Yeah, it's nice when my hubby and kids enjoy the food that I cooked. Sometimes, even a a simple egg cooked sunny side up plus stir-fried minced meat and vegetable soup can be a delicious meal for them after a long day at work or in school. In fact, my boys prefer to eat at home nowadays and they are healthier when they eat at home more frequently.


I see that a lot of couples tend to take things for granted after marriage, especially when the kids come along. Career and kids become more important. Then staying together becomes a responsibility and when the kids are grown up, the couple become strangers. I do not want this to happen to myself. This is my 10th year of marriage and recently my hubby was just commenting that he thinks that we are enjoying a better relationship than before marriage.

[winth]

jesschan:

This is my 10th year of marriage and recently my hubby was just commenting that he thinks that we are enjoying a better relationship than before marriage.

Wow... Feels really good to see your hard work being paid off.

Keeping the marriage going and growing is a huge challenge. When you think about it, managing your children is comparatively easier.

[csc]

[quote]Yeah, it's nice when my hubby and kids enjoy the food that I cooked. Sometimes, even a a simple egg cooked sunny side up plus stir-fried minced meat and vegetable soup can be a delicious meal for them after a long day at work or in school. In fact, my boys prefer to eat at home nowadays and they are healthier when they eat at home more frequently.
[/quote]I can identify with this. How true! Common dinner time with homecooked food on weekdays is a great way to keep the family going in the right direction.

[quote]This is my 10th year of marriage and recently my hubby was just commenting that he thinks that we are enjoying a better relationship than before marriage.[/quote]Same here too. We are into our 15th year and like wine, it gets better over the years. Guess, maturity and having common values and ideas really helps. We just travelled for 10 days without the kids in March - it was relaxing and fun - and he mentioned it's good to do it again next year .

:celebrate:

[jesschan]

winth:

I'm searching for ideas for healthy food with minimal preparation time too!

Pasta takes up a lot of time, need to cut those button mushrooms, boil the pasta and paste separately. I like pasta but they dun really enjoy it, dun understand why.

My younger boy likes pasta with tomato base and the older one prefers garlic with olive oil. So what I do is to boil the pasta and cool it down. Then I stir fry the ingredients - capisicum, button mushroom, ham / minced meat - with garlic. When the younger one comes home, I just add the canned tomato base to cook with ingredients and pasta for a few minutes. For the older one, I just stir fry the pasta with the cooked ingredients and sprinkle bacon chips (also prepared earlier) on it. Lunch settled!