How Much Time Should You Spend with Your Spouse

Can you imagine working with your partner day in and day out? Being together all the time and having no outside activities, interests or hobbies? If you can then you are probably a very rare couple. Personal experience has shown that while a couple needs time together they also need time apart. If one partner works from home and the other has a "real world" job then there is a period of time which allows them to not only be apart but also to interact with others, to pursue hobbies or interests that they may not share with each other. This is not a bad thing.

If a couple has no external stimulation, no goals or desires outside of spending every possible minute together it tends to lead to a feeling of dependency upon the relationship, a lack of feeling complete when the other partner isn't around and it can also lead to the downfall of a relationship very quickly.

Yes, you want to spend time with your spouse; time, communication, and intimacy are all very important to your relationship. However your personal mental health, your goals and interests, and your individuality is also an important part. There are couples who own a business and work together every day, then they go home together at night. What is important to making these relationships last is the differences and the growth of the individuals as well as the relationship.

The quality of time spent together as a couple is much more important than the amount of time you spend together. So if you and your spouse seem to be on different schedules, juggling kids, careers and hobbies you may become frustrated with the lack of time you can find to be together, and this may lead to making some adjustments. But if you have too much time together you may also want to do some adjusting. You are not an island, there is a big world outside of your relationship that you and your partner can explore, enjoy and thrive in without giving up your wonderful relationship.

Evaluate your relationship and see whether you and your partner are potentially sabotaging your relationship by wearing blinders that allow you to only see each other. A well rounded couple has individual friends, couple friends, individual hobbies and couple activities. The true measure of a successful relationship isn't so much staying together as it is growing together as individuals and as a couple.