Tip 12: Please compliment your wife, thank you

Two phrases - Please and Thank you probably would save a lot of marriages many apologies yet they seem effortless to use and a most efficient way to get the most out of your conversations. Its effectiveness will be how you phrase them with the right gestures and genuinity but its importance is ever more so for a mother who is nursing a newborn baby. A friend of mine gently warned me before childbirth that you would get more drama at home after childbirth instead of before childbirth. I took that advice in mind but rather lightly. I now know that he is right that the bodily changes a mother goes through in childbirth and after bring high demands to her and affects her emotionally in need of understanding, affection and support. And what better way than to generously sprinkle just two phrases in every conversation ... whenever I can remember.

Tokyo life is busy especially when I have ambitions to retire in a huge nest with a swimming pool and large garden somewhere. After our wedding, Tomomi and me were busy searching for an apartment to buy and during her pregnancy, Tomomi had to put up with many chores to move and prepare the home. I felt that she handled all these very well of course with many grumblings. But after childbirth, Tomomi was very attached to the baby and it did not dawn on me that I have to be more careful with my expectations of her and the way I carry out conversations. So, if its a lesson to late, better late than never. I probably did not use too many Please and Thank Yous yesterday.