The Husband's View of "Not Worth the Broccoli!"

I believe this story shows our unity as a couple. As a husband I decided a long time ago not to sweat the small stuff! I decided to look at every situation and evaluate how important it was to Mindy versus how important it was to me. I even heard Stephen Covey talk about it in "7 Habits for Highly Effective Families" and it confirmed what I thought was the correct way to do things. I felt that if I argued about every little decision that needed to be made, like the color of paint in the bathroom, all my arguments would fall on deaf ears because it would seam that I was arguing just for the sake of arguing. I decided that if the color of the paint in the bathroom was an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 for Mindy and it was only a 3 for me then I wouldn't argue. This has always put me in a position that if something was very important to me Mindy is much more willing to listen. She knows that if I am going to ask her to or not to do something that it must be important to me. Even something as simple as broccoli in my potato soup.

However, if I "always" complained about "everything" (always and everything are not words we use in our relationship, that could be a good post) why would she listen to me. She would think that my broccoli request was just another example of my stubbornness and decide not to honor it. Guess what, the last time she made potato soup she made a small batch for me without any broccoli. And I am sure that if I said I didn't like a color that she was going to use in the house she would be willing to discuss that with me too!