Your stuff is yours… and yours alone. I don't care how long you've been together, how committed you are, or how joined at the hip you might be—I guarantee there are things that you're not keen on sharing with your partner and certainly not keen on them lending out to other people… especially when those things always fail to come back. That's the problem that this husband was facing when he found his wife continually lending his belongings out to various members of her family. We're not talking…

Working closely together with your spouse in a workplace environment presents all sorts of opportunities for possible issues and abnormal workplace relationships. There's a reason why many organizations outright forbid known couples from remaining in the same workgroup, choosing to prevent the chance of these problems altogether by moving one of them to a different part of the company. Still, the last possible scenario you'd probably expect is one of the members of the couple to create problems…

Relationships are an ongoing affair, with constant growth and change of the individuals necessitating growth and change of the relationship itself. Of course, with the tendency for couples to establish codependency and isolate themselves from any other social interaction, often this growth and change can lead the couple in strange new directions , causing them to morph into unrecognizable amorphous symbiotes vaguely representing their former selves. Part of this involves adopting pet names for…

A lot of things in life aren't what they seem, but at least we're terrifyingly used to disappointment, thanks to having most things oversold to us by advertising only to have the reality be somewhat lackluster in comparison. The liberal usage of old or adjusted photos on dating apps is just the same strategy that real estate agents use when they photoshop a tiny bed into a photo of a closet-sized room in order to make it bigger and justify selling a two-bedroom house as a three-bedroom. In both…

There are a lot of benefits to being in a relationship, but by far, one of the greatest is combining your streaming service logins to maximize access. Often, these logins won't even be your own, just logins that you've been grandfathered into over time through parents, friends, roommates—even exes with whom you're no longer even in contact. These login accesses are a matter of privilege, and one of the reasons why ending a relationship on good terms is a good idea in the modern dating landscape…

Common sense and simple etiquette dictate whether or not you're a good guest in someone's home. Presumably, you'd like the experience to be an enjoyable and mutually beneficial one that strengthens your relationship, ensuring that you'll be invited back. Rather than, you know, them feeling like you've taken advantage of their hospitality purely as a means of reducing your own expenses.

Every couple is comprised of two people: The one who consistently replenishes things, providing consistent predictability in the availability of goods, and the one who refuses to replenish, instead choosing the path of disorder, unpredictability, and abject chaos. Few petty arguments grind the gears like replenishment, with this usually taking place over toilet rolls, ice cube trays, or water jugs. Try as they might to instill some sense of awareness into their partner; the replenishing partner…

Dating is a hard game and seems to only become more so the further down the path of life you tread. And, it makes sense we, arguably, only become more complex as people, carrying the weight of more experiences, which often make us weary and hesitant to trust potential suitors. And, rightfully so, it's hard to trust someone based on the image they project of themselves during the “get to know you stage.” Several dates are a mere drop in the bucket compared to the vast ocean of lives that you bot…

The topic of “weaponized incompetence” has become a hot one in online discussions any time relationships are mentioned. With relationship "gurus" singling out the behaviors of partners who refuse to learn basic tasks or household chores—or otherwise pretend that they can't do the task so that their partner gives up on asking them to do it and goes back to doing it themself. There's a notable distinguishment in behavior between being unable to do something—or honestly failing to learn it—and pre…

It's frustrating when someone can't keep a secret, especially when you've literally just finished telling them that secret, and the words are barely out of your mouth before they're sharing it with everyone. Of course, you learn to never disclose your secrets to that person after being burned once by their blabbermouth, but it's a little more complicated when that person is your spouse. It's also never easy living with a family who disapproves of your spouse due to their own haughty bias and pr…

Talk about the fragility of some people's egos. If your entire ego is built around feeling superior to your partner in intelligence, and that superiority can be shattered by something as innocuous as a phony online IQ test—well, quite frankly, you deserve however that makes you feel—you totally set yourself up for that one. (Especially when you were the one insisting that your wife take it.) Online exams of any type are useless—unless they're to find out which Disney princess you are. Sure, the…

It is often said that if you have an unexpected windfall of cash, you should tell nary a soul and lawyer up immediately. You'd be surprised how quickly even the most distant relatives and vague acquaintances come out of the woodwork once they catch a whiff of cash, looking for a handout and saying something about how you owe them because of that one thing they did for you that one time. This advice gets passed around any time the topic of winning the lottery is brought up, and everyone likely h…

Teaching your kids that they're not always going to have everything handed to them when (and how) they want it is an important lesson to share. It helps prepare them for the reality that things aren't always going to be exactly to their liking; different people do things differently and have different ideas about what is "good" and how things should be done, so learning to work with that as early as possible will only make their life easier and ensure that they don't grow up to be a micromanagi…

Never look a gift horse in the mouth—and never gift a look mouth in the horse. That doesn't make sense you say? Well, I feel like it makes about as much sense as the original. Horses and mouthes aside, it's never a good idea to make an issue about something someone is giving you for free. For one thing, it's free and there's nothing better than free stuff. Even if someone gives you a nest of angry bees at least you can make honey. If you're allergic to bees, at least you've gained the knowledge…

Sometimes you don't know how good you have it until it's gone… and sometimes, you're stupid enough to think you're holding a winning hand when you've been dealt a 2-7 offsuit. If you're ‘Josh’ right now, you're probably listening to sad Charlie Brown music and wondering how it all went so wrong. What started as a simple dispute over housing costs erupted into a relationship-ending disagreement after this woman turned to the internet for advice and to have them weigh in on the argument. The gist…

It's adorable how some folks treat their animals as humans—personifying them and giving them a voice and thoughts as if they can understand every word we say. I don't mean to sound cynical here. It's beautiful to see people treat their animals like family—they are—and where would mankind be without the companionship of pets? But, the personification should stop here; unfortunately, too many pet owners take personification a step too far and begin treating their pets in a way that doesn't suit t…