Good and Bad Influences

My wife and I are approaching 6 years of marriage. Having lived together even longer than that, we have picked up some of each other’s habits. Some good, some bad.

A little while back I heard my voice coming from the wife. She was growing frustrated when she couldn’t find her MP3 player. After tearing her room apart, she said something like “this is why I shouldn’t have nice things”. I said the same thing when I made the mistake of washing some dress slacks that were dry clean only. I don’t accept my own mistakes with grace. This voice of self-frustration is not really something I wanted to pass along.

An example of a better influence happened a week or so later. The wife had come up against something that wasn’t working. Rather than getting frustrated or giving up, she stopped and said to herself, “What would Sean do?” She stepped back for a minute, looked at the problem, and figured out a solution. I am much happier to hear about these kinds of influences. She doesn’t mock me quite so much for sitting down to read instruction booklets.

We’ve both brought good and bad habits into the relationship, and there is always something to learn. But no, I haven’t influenced the wife to fold socks like I do.