The May Firm

The most common reasons a marriage fails include: changing life priorities, lack of communication, financial stress, and lack of loyalty to the spouse. Statistics show that husbands and wives spend three to four times more time watching television than communicating with each other. Unfortunately, many divorces have issues of infidelity, but my experience is that other issues preceded and lead to infidelity.

When I meet with a potential client for the first time, I always explore whether the marriage is irretrievably broken or whether reconciliation remains a possibility. If reconciliation is an option, I encourage my potential client to fully pursue those options before proceeding with the divorce. Divorce litigation can be very disasterous to a future relationship and destroy any chance of putting the pieces back together.

When both spouses are committed to making a permanent, lasting changes, a heartbroken marriage can be repaired. Here are some tips for rescuing your marriage before it’s too late:

• Remind yourself of the reasons you fell in love with the other spouse in the first place.
• Become best friends — treat your spouse as the most important person in your life.
• Accept your spouse as he/she is, without demanding changes.
• Don’t involve third parties — your mother, sister, best friend, co-workers — in your marriage.
• Take lemons and make lemonade — turn hurdles into opportunities to strengthen your relationship.
• Admit your mistakes.
• Be a positive influence in your spouse’s life; don’t say negative things to your spouse in public or private.
• Disagree respectfully without personal attacks or bringing up issues from the past.
• Be a problem solver, even if it means you don’t “win” the argument.
• Create opportunities to laugh together.

Although I am a Dallas divorce lawyer, I would rather spouses reconcile than to go through divorce and that is the advice I give my clients.

Tags: Divorce, Reconciliation //