Ways To Stay Connected And Avoid Conflicts When Your Spouse Travels For Work
If your spouse just took a new job that involves a lot of traveling, it may not take long before you can see struggles and issues developing in your marriage. Marriage is not easy, and it requires hard work, but it can be even more difficult when one spouse is not home very often. Visiting a marriage counselor is a great way to solve issues that develop due to this situation, and counseling can also help you find ways to stay connected and keep your marriage strong through this time in your life. Here are several tips that can help you have a great marriage when your spouse travels.
Discuss Concerns And Issues Related To The Situation
Both spouses in this situation may have concerns and issues that relate to the distance that will be between them due to work travels. One common concern is infidelity. When spouses are away from each other, they may worry about what the other person is doing. This is a normal concern in this type of situation, but there are ways to work through this. Here are some tips that can help:
- Be available for each other as often as possible – While there might be times when one spouse cannot answer their phone, you should try to communicate as often as you can, simply so you can stay in touch and have an understanding of what is going on in each spouse's life.
- Create boundaries – Another good step you can take is developing boundaries. For example, you could create a boundary that neither of you can be alone with a person of the opposite sex.
Another concern the stay-at-home spouse may have is the extra work he or she will have because of this. With only one spouse at home, this person will be responsible for the entire house, the kids, and everything else that needs to be done. This can put a lot of stress on that spouse, but there might be ways to relieve this. For example, maybe the stay-at-home spouse could drop down from a full-time job to a part-time job to alleviate some time issues. Another possibility is to hire someone to help with cleaning, cooking, or childcare.
Talking about these issues is vital if you want to avoid conflicts due to a spouse traveling for work.
Find Ways To Stay Connected
The other important thing you will need to do is find ways to stay connected. Here are some options that can help with this:
- Text, email, or call often – It is vital for you to communicate with each other during this time, even if it just involves brief texts. Let the other person know you care about them and are thinking of them, or drop a text to let your spouse know what you are doing at the moment.
- Plan date nights – When your spouse does come home from traveling all week, make sure you have time to spend with him or her alone. Planning one date night per weekend is a great way to achieve this, and it can be a great way to reconnect after being apart all week.
- Respect the other person's responsibilities – Staying connected and avoiding conflicts may also be easier if you can put yourself in your spouse's shoes. If the traveling spouse can understand and realize all the work the stay-at-home spouse has because of this situation, it might be easier to get along. In return, the stay-at-home spouse must realize all the sacrifices the traveling spouse is making with being gone so much.
There are many ways to keep a marriage strong in a situation like this, and you can learn more about this by visiting a marriage counseling center like Associates For Counseling & Psychotherapy in your city.