5 Ways to Keep the Romance Alive in a Middle Age Marriage

By John Teng

5 Ways to Keep the Romance Alive in a Middle Age Marriage

1. Bring Home Flowers. I’m speaking to the guys on this one. Guys, make sure you bring home flowers to your lady. Women love receiving flowers just as much after they are married as they did when you gave them to her while you were dating. And there’s no need to spend a fortune using one of those online flower bouquet services to get the job done. Where I live, I can go to my local supermarket and pick up 18 roses for $12.99. I just throw the flowers in the same shopping cart with the 4 gallons of milk at a time and the diapers and I’m good to go!
2. Go Dancing Together. My wife and I both like to dance so when we go to a party with a dance floor we’ll get on up and dance at least a few songs. I remember one year watching another couple at a Christmas party we both attended. I remember the guy had a beer bottle in one hand and his other hand was slung over the chair next to him. The music was pumping and the dance crowd was having a great time, and there sat this guy, with a blank stare in his eyes as if he was oblivious to about a hundred people jumping up and down to blaring music only feet away from his table. But what made this memory stick in my mind all these years later was the look on the face of his date sitting next to him. She looked sad. I never asked or found out exact reason why they both sat there that entire evening, but my impression was the guy didn’t want to dance and the girl did. Let’s not read anything more into this than necessary, but let it suffice to say that it is my personal opinion that good things will happen in your marriage if you go dancing together.
3. Give Yourself a Time Out. Coming home to a house full of screaming children and a stressed out spouse who had just as crazy of a day as you did, doesn’t contribute to setting a positive atmosphere once the family reunites back at home at the end of a day. One thing to consider is to figure out a way for both you and your partner carve out a few minutes to “decompress” after a stressful day. Maybe that means surfing the internet for a few minutes or even just changing out of your work clothes and into something more comfortable, these few minutes can do wonders to help you center your mind before going back into the fray and figuring out why everybody is yelling at each other…just saying from experience on this one.
4. Say “I Love You.” I am half Chinese and one of the things that I have learned about this side of my family is that it is not common for my Chinese relatives to say “I love you” to each other. I have come to understand this as a cultural thing that has nothing to do with the intense affection that they feel for the important people in their lives. With that being said, my mother is German and Irish and told me that she, too, rarely heard the words “I love you” during her childhood. That’s why I’m so glad that my mother decided to break that tradition when she had her own children. I was constantly told by my mother that she loved me and it meant the world to me that she said those three words to me. As a father and husband, I slather those three words all over my people every single day. I want my children to grow up as adults with those three words burned into their memory of how their father feels about them even when I am no longer with them. Yes, actions do speak louder than words, but I’m sure no relationship has ever suffered from hearing the words “I Love You” from their significant other. Just say it!