Six months ago, my wife and I had a conflict that had been silently building up for some time. It all revolved around how she sometimes spoke to the kids when she got frustrated. I couldn’t stand it. It hurt me to see them sad or scared, and that made me angry with her. Every time it happened, I would shut down, grow cold... and even though I didn’t say it directly, I blamed her. I felt like she was being unfair to them. But then I remembered the Improving Relationships seminar I had taken months earlier, and I decided to put it into practice. That same day, after getting home from work, I sat her down and chose to listen to her. She broke down, and that’s when everything became clear to me. It wasn’t just about what she was doing - I had responsibility too. I wasn’t being her partner, just her judge. I wasn’t helping her, I wasn’t asking how she felt or why she reacted that way. I was only demanding, from the position of “I know how it should be.” It was a very honest conversation. We spoke from reality, without masks. We connected through the deep affinity that binds us: we both love our children and we love each other. We were simply lost in exhaustion, in the fear of not doing things right. We truly listened to each other. We embraced. And from that moment on, communication opened up again. We began to support each other more, to share the load, to correct one another with love. Now we’re much more united, more understanding… and happy to have gone through that together.