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Texting With Love
- Be respectful, use respectful language and avoid shouting at your partner via text.
- Have reasonable expectations, your partner may not be able to answer immediately, that does not necessarily mean that they do not care.
- Be courteous, if you will be unavailable to answer messages for a period of time, or if your job is not conducive to texting, let your partner know.
- Be courteous, if you read your partner text, but don’t have time to respond, agree upon a response that will let your partner know that you will answer when you can, like sending “k talk soon.”
- Be reliable; follow through with what you say you will do
- Set healthy boundaries; if you are starting to get angry, let your partner know. Something like, “Feeling angry. Need some time. We will talk tonight.”
- Respect your partner’s boundaries, if your partner asks for a texting time out, respect that request, rather than pushing for a response.
- Be proactive, rather than get into a texting war, pick up the phone and talk to each other or wait until you can talk in person.
- Give your partner the benefit of the doubt. Understand that it is easy to misunderstand text messages.
- Be patient, expecting an instant response will lead to disappointment and frustration.
- Be courteous, do not ignore your partner’s texts to punish them or avoid them.
- Be respectful, do not stalk your partner via text messages.
- Be clear; sit down, face to face and be honest with each other about your expectations around texting. Decide on reasonable response times, how to ask for time outs, and what feels supportive rather than destructive.
Miscommunications happen frequently when couples are talking. They happen exponentially more often when couples are texting. But talking about and making some conscious choices around texting etiquette for you, should help avoid some of the common pitfalls and make texting a connecting rather than disconnecting experience for you.
Susan Derry, Professional Counsellor & Life Coach
“Find joy in everythign you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.” Chuck Palahniuk
“Falling in love and having a relationship are two different things” Keanu Reeves
If you are not yet married and would like to greatly increase your chances of creating a lasting, loving relationship, consider investing in a marriage preparation course. Check out www.onlinemarriageprep.com