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How More Time Indoors is Leading to Increased Marital Problems

By Hazel Thomas posted 05-16-2021 12:17

  

Marriage is hard work and requires constant input, compromise, and sacrifice. When you love your spouse, it does not feel like work. However, recent events that forced many couples to remain indoors with their significant others 24/7 have proven to be a strain that some have struggled to bear.

Marital problems have reared their ugly heads, even for those couples who thought their marriages were rock solid. Here are some factors that have contributed to them:

Familiarity breeds contempt

This adage has proven true for many married couples over the last twelve months. Most spouses are used to seeing each other only for a few hours a day due to work commitments. Going from this routine to being together constantly has proven to be too much for some couples. Instead of being supportive of one another, they are getting on each other’s nerves.

Those that have recognized this problem have sought help from Interactive Counselling’s Kelowna office. You can click here to find out more about what they do if you need assistance. Counsellors help couples understand that experiencing some challenges in the relationship due to the ‘new normal’ in which the world finds itself are common and do not spell a marriage’s demise.

Taking frustrations out on each other

The stress of worrying about finances impacted by the pandemic, working from home, and managing virtual homework and homeschooling, among others, has left some couples exhausted. What started as an opportunity for spouses to spend more time together and bond with their children has turned into a living nightmare.

With nowhere to go to relieve their stress, such as meeting up with friends or visiting family, couples are feeling increasingly frustrated. They take their anger and stress out on each other, leading to increased conflict and disagreements.

Inclination to overindulge

Some people have unhealthy coping mechanisms when faced with a crisis or challenge. Many have turned to alcohol to get through the difficulties of spending so much time with their spouses or deal with their worries about what the future holds. 

Alcohol tends to bring out the worst in most people. It makes them say and do things that are out of character. This can often cause the people around them a lot of hurt and suffering. 

When a spouse is drunk and behaving this way, the other can leave the house for a while to give them time to sober up. Unfortunately, this is not the case when couples are stuck indoors with each other all day and night.

Learning new routines

Change is difficult, even under normal circumstances. Adapting to a new situation during a time when uncertainty reigns can be even worse. This is a reality many couples have faced and found themselves struggling to adjust. 

Working from home might have sounded like an ideal prospect when the pandemic began, but it has many pitfalls, and staying focused is not easy.

Competing priorities and differing work schedules have made it hard for couples to find time together. Some have divided their workdays so that each is available for the children who also need support. Therefore, the husband may be working during the mornings and the wife in the late afternoon and evening. 

True colors emerge

Many couples that have not been married that long have found that the person they married is not quite who they thought they were. As time passes, people’s true colors emerge, and they do not always paint a spouse in a favorable light.

Learning to understand each other is a process that takes time, patience, and perseverance. Getting a little help to accomplish this often makes it easier to deal with.

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