There is No Room for Criticism
Life as a resident is tough. Life as a resident spouse is uniquely but equally challenging. The inherent demands of residency leave little time or energy for anything else. Mistakes are made. Responsibilities are unfulfilled. Screw ups happen. Duties are left unattended. Promises are often broken. I can’t recall all the times I promised to be home at a certain time or to make it to a scheduled arrangement only to show up hours late. Or the times I forgot an important family event and left my wife managing solo. On the flip side, the challenges Kim had of running a household with four children and working herself meant some things were left undone at home as well. As we’ve negotiated these challenges, we discovered there is never room for harsh, critical comments. Such situations can be frustrating and hurtful, but criticism only added insult to injury – especially when we were both doing the best we could. In those moments, it helped me to assume that responsibilities, duties, or promises weren’t intentionally being neglected, but rather Kim was truly doing the best she could under the circumstances. And Kim learned to assume the same for me which allowed us to work better as a team and together tackle the challenges. {Medical Marriage Tip #5}
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