If you cast your mind back, you probably know that there initially seemed to be tension between Victoria Beckham and Nicola shortly after her and Brooklyn's 2023 wedding. However, when 2024 kicked off, the family appeared to be a united front and were on good terms... For about a year. Whew. What do you make of the whole situation? Let me know in the comments below!
Your tarot card for New Year's Day is the Queen of Wands, which represents sparkly, positive qualities like confidence, passion, charisma, optimism, and determination. This one's for everyone who celebrated exactly how they wanted to last night. Did you dance 'til dawn? Kiss your date at midnight? Go to bed by nine? Queen energy means following your own path.
When you're the one who organizes the family vacation, calls the plumber for your parents, and coordinates every Mother's Day gift, it's easy to feel resentful that nobody else is stepping up to help. Often, the eldest daughter is the one who notices-and in noticing, begins to believe she's responsible. Family researchers have long described this as intergenerational vigilance (Miller-Ott et al., 2017), a sense of watchfulness passed down through gendered expectations.
The New Year is generally a time for reflection, where we think about our lives in years past and, inevitably, the people in them. Today, we are privileged in that reconnecting with those acquaintances, childhood classmates, or former colleagues after years is not only possible, but, thanks to living in the digital age, easy to do. While reaching out to old friends can lead to genuine, meaningful renewal, sometimes, a "blast from the past" can also provoke discomfort, confusion, or emotional fatigue instead.
This year, commit to unplugging for a set period of time each day, whether that's before breakfast in the morning or an hour before bed at night. "Make a joint resolution, not just an individual one, to set a time limit on social media and phone use when you're together," said Smith, who specializes in counseling men. "Challenge yourselves to make a list of fun, enjoyable alternative things you can do together instead of the isolating behavior being on our phones brings."
I'm gonna miss toxic masculinity, says the comedian Kiry Shabazz. I feel like it's going to be in a museum someday. In the ensuing standup routine, Shabazz describes a fight with a friend who, like him, is doing the work to be a better person. He called the friend several unprintable names while acknowledging: I'm only calling you that because culturally that's how I know how to express myself. The friend's reply to the torrent of insults: I hear you and I receive that.
Not all unhealthy relationships will look inherently unhealthy at first glance. In fact, many one-sided relationships actually start out with intensity, chemistry, and the belief that you finally found someone who has chosen you. This can feel hypnotic or intoxicating, especially if you have a history of dysfunctional romantic relationships or childhood abuse. The reality is that yes, you may have been chosen. However, if you are in a one-sided relationship, then being "chosen" may not be what you had hoped.
There is a widespread feeling that love is facing challenging times these days. Many of us may want more love in our lives, but that desire often fades quickly when we encounter difficulties. Love usually requires us to sacrifice something. In romantic relationships, it might mean dedicating time to our partner and spending less time with friends, family, work, or leisure.
I go into Christmas every year with low expectations for my husband's side of the family. They are notoriously bad gift givers, so I just go into it with the knowledge that the gifts don't matter, it's about our time together as a family.
I've been with my girlfriend for three years. I make three times what she does. I also have zero debts because of a lucky break with getting a sports scholarship. My girlfriend, on the other hand, went to a private school with high student loans. She is lucky to be in a loan forgiveness program if she teaches in a low-income school district for a period of several years, but she still has high monthly payments. She also has maxed-out credit cards.
Lately, I've noticed many silver-haired couples walking hand-in-hand down sidewalks, along boardwalks, and following trails. Most seem to have a lilt in their steps and sparkly eyes, almost like they're in love. I hope they are. I am. After three plus decades of marriage and five years of post- divorce online dating, I, too, feel a lightness and sparkle. It's seeped into my being over the past five years, and I'm more than a little goo-goo.
And unlike any other chore or fitness enterprise, you conceive it more as self-indulgence than self-improvement, and as such, even if you're already in a relationship, it's hard to find that chin-out determination to get it done. Yet sex is an appetite like any other, a necessity like any other, a nourishment like any other. If you let it go dormant the effect on your relationship might be as if one or both of you are on a permanent diet and also lonely.
Try to create a story or movie scene out of it. Think about this scenario from start to finish with all of the details. Have your partner do the same. Take turns sharing the explicit details about how turned on you are, what exactly would happen, what you would both do to each other, and you'd be wearing, as if you're telling a story from a dirty book or watching a movie scene.
A new nationwide review of U.S. engagement behavior has identified the months when Americans are most likely to get engaged, revealing a strikingly consistent annual pattern shaped by emotion, family traditions, seasonal timing, and practical planning needs. The analysis, conducted by Mark Broumand, examined Google Trends search patterns alongside national marriage statistics to better understand when proposals happen, when planning accelerates, and how seasonal sentiment influences one of life's biggest milestones.
So many, in fact, that January has earned the nickname "Divorce Month," with the first Monday of the year often referred to as "Divorce Monday." If you're reading this, chances are you've been contemplating a split for quite some time. When people finally reach the point of action, however, they often make avoidable mistakes-particularly when it comes to how they tell their spouse they want out.
After they'd been dating three years-some of them long distance between New York and Washington, DC-Ruben Marinbach decided to propose to Rebecca Winship on a milestone vacation. "It was my 30th birthday, and we took a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming with a bunch of our best friends," says Rebecca. On the birthday itself, the group were posing for a few photos in front of the Teton Mountains when Ruben got down on one knee.
As the recipient of an unwanted gift, is it necessary to pretend you like it? This is what most of us are trained to do as children; for some it was our first experience of being instructed to lie. Thank you, I might have said to my grandmother, for this frilly, itchy lace-trimmed dress identical to the one you gave my sister. I love it.
One of my fondest moments in my relationship with my fiancé happened because of a Walmart being open 24 hours. This was back in 2018-ish, and my fiancé and I both worked at the local Pizza Hut. We had opposite schedules, and for some reason, management never scheduled our days off together. For about 3 or 4 months, we only saw each other at shift change.
It's completely understandable that you'd want to confront your wife for cheating, but I'm going to encourage you to be practical here. You have the ability to set the tone. If you weren't really bothered by it, or if the turn-on majorly outweighed your bother, it may not be useful to stage a full-on confrontation. A more effective route could be for you to just say that you know what's up-you saw it with your own eyes-and it really turned you on.
They help each other cope with difficulties, survive, and thrive together. That shared assistance contributes to their relationship satisfaction too. Even so, the supportive exchange between romantic partners is not a business transaction. Instead, like most processes of romantic attraction, it is both practical and emotional. Thus, we don't just mechanically reciprocate with a romantic partner; we feel and express gratitude for their efforts too. In turn, they feel grateful and express their gratitude back to us, creating a virtuous cycle of support and satisfaction.
We had taken every precaution we could to avoid it. I have MS, which can react in unpredictable ways to viral exposures. My husband knows this very well, which is why I'm perplexed and furious that he thought it better to stay on the good side of our son by not allowing me to decide for myself whether I wanted to walk into a potentially deadly situation.
What were you hoping for? To snog the love of my life. Failing that, I'd heard good things about the broccoli. First impressions? Great glasses, great Scottish accent, great punctuality. A strong start. What did you talk about? Living on Shetland, in Japan, Berlin, Norwich. Books. Boats. Most awkward moment? When some of our fellow diners started singing and dancing along to the music.
supplemented, perhaps, by digital glimpses over social media. In such a case, you would not be expected to have an exact recollection of an anniversary date, and may therefore confine yourself to simply checking in, as the saying goes. If you invite her out for a meal around the one-year mark, it could be explained (as you learn more) as either a sympathy visit or a celebration.
