Boundaries in Marriage

by Henry Cloud

Lynn solved a small but chronic marriage problem by making an important shift in her attitude. She stopped trying to change Tom, and she started making changes in herself. Lynn moved from seeing the problem as Tom’s lateness to seeing it as her unhappiness with Tom’s lateness. This opened the door to things she could control. When you cease to blame your spouse and own the problem as yours, you are then empowered to make changes to solve your problem. To do this, Lynn set a couple of limits on herself. First, she reined in her impulse to attack Tom for his tardiness. This was not easy, as she was clearly right and he was clearly wrong. She would have been justified in confronting him at every infraction. But she placed a boundary on her anger, since it wasn’t solving the problem. Second, Lynn set a limit on her enabling of Tom. She realized that she was making it easier for him to be irresponsible, so she said no to her desire to protect him from his dreaded dinner reheating. These two changes made a difference for both partners.

The authors don’t explain why it's her problem, they just reframe it as being hers even though they immediately acknowledge that she is in the right. it would be more accurate to say that her approach to solving the problem (i.e., being a sledgehammer) is counterproductive and only exacerbating the situation.