Boundaries Blog — communication

Telling other people what you want is key to feeling alive in a relationship and keeping things vibrant for both people. If only one person is getting his or her desires met, the relationship suffers. Unfortunately, many people do not get what they want in a relationship. But, they could if they knew how to communicate their desires.

For example, Peter began dating Marla. At first, he was in absolute heaven. She was so "easy to get along with," he said. About five months later, though, something happened. "I broke up with Marla," he said. "It just wasn't working out."

"What happened?" I (Dr. Cloud) asked....

When my wife, Barbi, and I (Dr. Townsend) were first married, we used to have conflicts about conflict. Looking back, it's kind of funny as I later went on to write a Christian relationship book called Boundaries in Marriage. Imagine watching us have boundary conversations about how bad our marriage boundaries were. Barbi's approach to conflict was to avoid it. My approach tended to be more blunt. We'd talk about a problem and it wouldn't go well. One of us would misunderstand, we would pull away from each other, and the problem wouldn't get solved.

One day, I asked Barbi, "When we argue, I never stop loving you. Is there anything I can do to make this better for you?" She thought a minute and said, "Maybe if you let me know you love me before you confront me, that might help."...

Lynn was weary of Tom's chronic lateness in coming home from work. Because he owned his own business, he was often delayed at work. It seemed like such a little thing, but as time passed, Tom's tardiness became a big problem. Lynn would arrange her day to have dinner and the kids ready on time, and she wanted Tom to be home on time as well.

Reminding, nagging, and cajoling Tom had been ineffective. Tom would either defend himself by saying, "You don't appreciate the work I have to do to put food on the table," or he would simply deny the problem altogether ...

People who have a hard time setting limits in their relationships often are concerned about their effect. They don't want to be negative with others. For example, a wife with a controlling husband may be afraid he will become angry if she says no to his control. A father may fear alienating his adult child when he sets a time limit on how long he can live at home. Or a boss may be concerned about morale dropping if he has to have a tough talk with a key employee. As a result, they often postpone the talks that need to happen.

It is true that confronting problems and setting limits is not a "positive" experience. That is, it involves some difficult talks and actions that feel negative in nature. People can react in defensive, angry or hurt ways. However, just because something feels negative at the time doesn't mean it will have a negative outcome....