Time Magazine's Healthland blog on the recent State of Our Unions: Marriage in America report "When Baby Makes Three":
The authors came up with five qualities that happily married parents share. Moms were more likely to be happy in marriage if they had, in order:
- Sexual satisfaction
- Commitment
- Generosity to husband, including small acts of service like making coffee for him in the morning, expressing affection, and being willing to forgive
- Good attitude toward raising kids (i.e., she wanted them)
- Social support from family and friends
The top five predictors for happily wed dads were the same, except for No. 5, which was a shared "marital spirituality"; e.g., the couple says God is at the center of their marriage. Other characteristics of a content couple included having a similar faith and sharing the chores. (My personal favorite sentence in the report: "[W]omen are more likely to report that they are sexually satisfied when they report that they share housework with their husbands."
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