Talk Before Marriage: 5 Talks You Should Have With Your Partner Before Marriage

Last updated: Oct 5, 2022
Talk Before Marriage: 5 Talks You Should Have With Your Partner Before Marriage

Before getting married, you should never skip over these crucial dialogues. They can reveal potential turnoffs and establish a couple's compatibility over the long run.

Marriage isn't exempt from change; it happens over time, just like everything else in life.

Today's married couples encounter a number of difficulties that prior generations never had to. One further element that affects relationships and marriage today is the recent advancements in technology. These changes necessitate significant and in-depth discussions that couples in the past never had to think about before deciding to get married.

Before getting married, you should never skip over these crucial dialogues. They can reveal potential turnoffs and establish a couple's compatibility over the long run.

Talking before marriage is very important.

How will we overcome obstacles as a team?

As was already noted, today's couples deal with issues that earlier couples were never forced to think about. Couples should prepare for disagreement as a result of these new obstacles.

When conflict arises—not if it arises—couples need to have a plan for how they are going to handle it and find a solution. This also refers to who they will turn to for advice if they get into trouble.

In the past, couples were frequently a part of a community, whether it was a religious group or just a small family community that could mentor newlyweds. This direction or mentoring produced a model for how couples would handle disputes that would develop in their marriage.

Today, many couples struggle to navigate an ever-changing world on their own because they lack this sense of community.

Today's couples should discuss their views on receiving advice from a therapist, a religious figure, or other forms of mentors when the going gets rough before getting hitched.

Related article: Top 10 Signs That a Relationship Is Healthy

Couple should talk more wtih each other before marriage.

To what extent should family influence our marriage?

The blended family is now the more prevalent family structure in our society, according to the Pew Research Center, which claims that the family structure in the United States has been changing rapidly.

Complex family dynamics are now common in our society, whereas they were formerly uncommon. This is due to the additional family members, whether through marriage or those who remain after divorce.

To prevent problems in the future, couples who are thinking about getting married need to discuss how to define family duties and where to set clear boundaries. When a couple marries, they create a new family that may challenge previously existing family structures, straining the newly formed partnership and leading to problems.

It's wonderful if your partner has a close contact with their mother and speaks to her frequently or if they maintain a close friendship with their ex-spouse. These connections, however, will jeopardize the growth of a new marriage and strain the time and resources necessary for a strong marriage.

Couples need to talk about the future dynamic adjustments that will need to take place.

Talking before marriage can be beneficial to all couples.

Do we share the same future vision?

"Incompatibility" is one of the main reasons for divorce, according to the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts.

Marriage-related incompatibility can touch on a wide range of topics, such as parenting, religion, political beliefs, and financial or personal interests. Overall, it highlights the necessity for couples to have a crucial discussion about whether they share the same future goals.

A shared future vision encompasses not just how they currently see these aspects of their relationship, but also what they might be able to build as a pair.

In the future, how do they hope to spend their time together? Where do they want to reside? What would they like to do as a couple?

Couples are doomed to grow apart if they don't grow together. Therefore, before getting married, couples should also discuss their future goals in addition to whether they share the same values.

Having the same future vision is very important for marriage.

Will we recognize our mutual influence?

According to research by John Gottman and Neil Jacobson, "accepting influence" is a crucial component of successful partnerships.

Respect for your partner, an open mind to their ideas, and a willingness to be adaptable and compromise are all related to being able to accept your partner's influence.

The likelihood that a couple will remain together and strengthen their marriage is higher when they are able to accept one another's influence.

Accepting influence does not need you to submit to your partner's demands or accept all of their suggestions. It implies that you are both willing to work toward a compromise and uphold mutual respect throughout the process.

Even though this is a crucial discussion for couples to have before getting married, it is frequently clear immediately whether or not your partner would compromise with you. It's usually not a good sign of accepting influence and could be seen as a red signal if a couple appears to have power struggle issues from the start.

How do we value finance and intimacy?

Money and sex are reportedly the top two issues that cause arguments between couples. In our experience dealing with couples, these issues serve as a barometer for the state of a marriage. Let alone before a couple gets married, these two subjects require in-depth discussion during the marriage.

A study published in the Family Relations Journal found that financial conflicts within a spouse might be a major cause of divorce.

Money has become a crucial topic for couples to talk about as many people today marry later in life or get married twice or even three times.

Many couples are now considering marriage at an older age and must now work together to merge their assets because many of them have already built their own financial portfolios.

When attempting to have this conversation, open communication and transparency are essential because money can mean much more than just a dollar figure. Depending on the financial background a person brings into a marriage, money can signify survival, fear, independence, power, control, failure, and success.

If couples don't have these in-depth financial discussions, it may leave gaps in their relationship that are challenging to bridge.

Intimacy and sex, like money, can be much more than just a physical act, and what a person learns about sex during their development and in previous relationships is certain to play a role in their marriage.

Sex and intimacy in a marriage can signify a variety of emotions, including love, failure, inadequacy, rejection, abandonment, judgment, acceptance, approval, attentiveness, nurture, and connection. Depending on how a couple handles it, this aspect of their relationship has the greatest ability to either heal or hurt them. 

If not handled properly, discussions regarding sex and intimacy frequently result in damaged feelings, defensiveness, and/or avoidance. It is not surprising that one of the main causes of divorce in relationships is a lack of sexual closeness. [8] Therefore, before getting married, a couple needs to have this crucial dialogue.

Finance and intimacy are very important for marriage.

Final Reflections

Nowadays, it's much harder than it used to be to build a successful marriage. Before getting married, couples have a lot more to think about and a lot more tough conversations to have than in the past.

Today, it is even more crucial for couples to take the proactive steps required to maintain a happier marriage because divorce can cost tens of thousands of dollars, has a detrimental influence on children, and has emotional repercussions that spouses may experience.