By America's #1 [Link Removed] 

Many pundits talk about the importance of friends, family and childhood experiences to the success of love and marriage.  But how important is a sturdy support system of friends and family to couples with highly [Link Removed] /?

Successfully married couples have NOT reported to us that having a sturdy support system of friends and relatives was a prerequisite to their [Link Removed] /.

Here is another part of that supportive family issue – stable childhoods are NOT a prerequisite to a successful marriage. We have interviewed couples that have been successfully married for 30-77 years and virtually none of them have reported that a "stable childhood" was the defining element in their [Link Removed] /.  

In fact, most of the successfully married couples we have interviewed suggest to us that their childhood experiences didn't matter much with regard to their marriage. Their marriage depended, more than anything else, on their relationship with each other. The success of their marriage was determined by the strength of their relationship with each other – nothing more, nothing less. Let's leave the blame on childhood experiences – for good or bad – behind as unworthy when it comes to a [Link Removed] /.

As human beings, we have this amazing capacity to love and be loved.  In a [Link Removed] /, this notion is multiplied ten-fold!  Successful marriage represents an accumulation of the reciprocal notion of loving and being loved.  The relationship between husband and wife trumps everything else!

By Dr. Charles D. Schmitz and Dr. Elizabeth A. Schmitz

**For [Link Removed]  .

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