The Blonde Diaries

As part of our wedding checklist, Mike and I were required to attend marriage preparation classes through our church. We were given the option of 2 Friday nights and a Saturday or an entire weekend. We opted for the 2 Friday night and 1 Saturday night session for a total of 8 hours. I was not sure what to expect as I have heard many different opinions on these classes – basically the good, the bad, and the ugly. I decided to bury what I have heard about them and go in with an open mind and maybe I would learn something.

What Mike and I learned from these classes was that we are on the same page on a variety of topics – family attitudes, parenting, communication issues. It was rather refreshing to see this as we were given workbooks and would answer them separately and then talk about our answers. I promise there was no peaking. We also learned a new communication technique that I want to start working into our routine each week and maybe daily after that. It is called the Daily Temperature Report (not sure why the name). Basically you do the following:
Sit with your partner and share:

1. An appreciation of that person (such as I appreciate you because or for XYZ).
2. Share new information you learned (this can be anything you want to share).
3. Share a puzzle (this is basically anything that you are questioning or is on your mind that you want to talk about.  It can only be Yes/No and should be discussed later).
4. Complaint with a preference (basically something like I dislike it when you do this.  I would prefer if you would do this.)
5. Share a wish, hope, or dream.

It is all very basic but it gets you to start really opening up with your partner and talking things out.  I have to admit I shy away from communicating my full thoughts and feelings sometimes but I want to work on that.  This should be a great tool to solve the problem.

Tags: communication, marriage, marriage prep classes, Wedding