My partner and I have good communication.
I think.
What does it really mean to have “good communication”? It’s something you always hear from relationship experts. Communication is the key to a healthy relationship. But how do you know if I’m actually communicating in a way that’s healthy?
My partner and I check in with each other each day. I compliment him regularly, and graciously accept his. We communicate about what we want for dinner. He tells me when I’m ticking him off, I tell him when the joke has gotten old. Up until recently, that’s what I had always assumed was good communication. We’re talking, right?
To let you in on a little side of my life, my partner’s family lives in Alaska, and we are all the way in Minnesota. Makes getting together rather difficult. Family is really important to me, and I have gotten it in my head that we needed to go visit them this summer. So every week I’d ask my partner if he took work off yet so we could go, and every time he’d tell me, “not yet.”
We’re communicating, right?
But not in a healthy way.