Do you think that by taking a break from your ailing relationship, you can save it?
Recently, actress Emma Thompson revealed that she believes every married couple could benefit from a relationship break — so that when they come back together, they can love each other in a better way.
Speaking about her new movie, in which a couple takes a break from their relationship, Thomspon said the same could work for some couples:
“I wonder whether this isn’t the way forward for a lot of married couples? You look at it and think that maybe every marriage should have a kind of a sabbatical, that couples should be forced to take a break from each other every so often, if just for a year or so. It’s actually not a bad idea.
“You need to go off perhaps, although not to be with other people. I think that would make things very difficult: All that free love stuff has been tried and tested and doesn’t work and has been proven to make relationships very, very tricky. But I’m sure a sabbatical could work if it were done properly.”
Mink Elliott, a UK-based author, recently tested this theory, although not entirely willingly. Her husband Jon sprung his wish to separate on her one seemingly normal night, taking her completely by surprise.
“Jon’s bombshell was delivered on an otherwise ordinary Sunday evening in August 2012, as we settled down in front of the TV. ‘You know, we should make a plan for the next five years, decide what we want to be doing,’ I said, absent-mindedly. Jon exhaled, slowly, before replying: ‘Well, I think we should separate.’”
After many discussions, the couple worked out mutual living and custody arrangements and eventually went their separate ways.
At first, Mink found it hard to adjust. But after some time, she admitted that the separation of their lives actually strengthened them as a couple.
“The most annoying thing he said of all? ‘Maybe this could be the best thing to ever happen to us — it might make us stronger.’ Although my pride was too wounded to admit it for a long time, he was right.”
Yet here’s the thing — this is such a typical modern family scenario.
Life gets busy.
Once it was all about mini-breaks and shagging.
Now it’s about home insurance and cleaning catshit off the carpet. Is it any wonder the excitement nicks off?