The Secret of Happy Parents: How to Stay in Love as a Couple and True to Yourself

The Secret of Happy Parents: How to Stay in Love as a Couple and True to Yourself
Steve Biddulph

Shaaron Biddulph

Bestselling authors and communication and parenting experts Steve and Shaaron Biddulph bring you a humorous, loving guide to creating a successful long-term relationship.Illustrations are best viewed on a tablet.This highly readable book guides you through the ups and downs of life as a couple or family and gives you the skills you need to survive as a loving partner and parent.Everybody wants to find love, but in the real world love is something you learn one day at a time. Being a good partner or parent takes courage, honesty and a sense of humour – this book will help you with all three.The message of this entertaining and informative book is that ALL healthy couples have clashes, and sexual and communication problems can act as sparks that ignite new honesty and closeness – you just need to learn how to deal with them in the right way.This essential guide for anyone looking for advice on how to deal with life as a couple or a family includes:• How to grow commitment in small, safe steps.• Love, Lust and Liking – telling them apart and bringing them together.• Diagnosing your ‘couple style’.• The ‘make-or-break’ crises that every marriage or partnership has – and how to use them to make your relationship stronger.• The Sex-Romance alliance – love that gets better.• How children can help us grow up and develop a more fulfilling relationship.

The Secret of Happy Parents

How to Stay in Love as a Couple and True to Yourself

Steve and Shaaron Biddulph

Copyright (#ulink_982b4d00-6e08-521d-86ee-300335fd59a9)

Thorsons

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

First published in Australia and New Zealand as The Making of Love by Doubleday 1988

Revised and expanded edition by Doubleday 1999

Published in the UK as How Love Works by Thorsons 2000

Copyright © Steve and Shaaron Biddulph

Steve and Shaaron Biddulph assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780722536698

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN 9780007373598

Version: 2016-08-24

Dedication (#ulink_ae08666b-2d98-5e95-8acf-19f0a8583817)

It doesn’t much matter whether you are a billionaire, or you work in the corner shop.

It doesn’t matter if you are good looking, educated, famous, or unknown.

You are here, in this life, to learn how to love, and that’s all.

You have always known this.

Contents

Title Page (#u5decf52b-6cf5-569b-a05a-0ccd87449202)

Copyright (#u428f8f17-d893-5988-af31-5611abcad421)

Dedication (#ulink_a84412ab-ee7f-5baf-8611-d73a5a90e05c)

Special Note (#u8460a9d4-8294-55ed-ab36-ea328057c0c7)

Foreword (#u5bf13a4a-70b7-51ba-96c1-bcea8a4afb30)

Chapter 1 About Us, About You (#ud3141bc8-b68c-5ab8-9932-c5080ef74379)

Chapter 2 Compatibility: The Ways We Connect (#u5484de9b-d185-532e-b223-7fbb7b2cbdea)

Chapter 3 Why We Choose Who We Choose (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4 Commitment: The Freedom You Can Count On (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 What Kind of Couple Are You? (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 How Solving Problems Brings You Closer (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 Fighting Your Way to Closeness (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 Then Along Come the Kids (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 The Sex-Romance Alliance (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 Advanced Lessons (#litres_trial_promo)

Appendix (#litres_trial_promo)

Further Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Special Note (#ulink_46127fa2-9963-568a-a20f-d89a0f2a4ff0)

In the book we use the word ‘married’ in a specific way; that is, to indicate two people in a committed long-term project of loving and learning. It is not necessary to be legally married to do this (and it is possible to be legally married and not in such a project).

Though the book is primarily written with heterosexual couples in mind, we hope gay and lesbian couples will find it just as useful.