MARRIED couples lose that loving feeling three and a half years after tying the knot, according to a Co-operative Food poll.
The Co-op’s Kate Jones said: “It’s all too easy for couples to start getting complacent and take each other for granted. Once the honeymoon period is over, couples often let bad habits take over and forget to go the extra mile to make each other happy.”
With some couples I know, that extra mile would be in opposite directions.
Mind you, it’s all too easy for complacency to sneak into a relationship without you knowing.
Here are some of the signs Kate says you should look for – opting to sleep rather than having sex, lack of ‘date nights’, forgetting to say “I love you” everyday, breaking wind when your partner is around, ditching matching underwear, stop shaving your legs, showering less, no longer applying make-up, not closing the bathroom door when going to the toilet and wearing granny pants.
Well, I can say here and now that I have never worn granny pants or indulged in bad toilet habits or public flatulence. I shower at least once a day but, I do confess, I no longer wear make-up.
This stopped after an unfortunate incident when Maria and I were courting. I died my hair raven black and applied fake tan from Boots then went to play football. It rained and everything ran. I looked like a victim of the plague.
As it happens, my wife Maria is a granny but she doesn’t wear granny pants, either.
Then again, we both think we’re still 38 and in our prime and, if we don’t wear our glasses or look at each other too carefully, we can get away with it. Well, Doris Day did with a misty close-up lens for years.
The poll did have an alternative side. It showed that 75% of people think it’s normal to take each other for granted if you’ve been married a while. And 90% claim the only reason they behave as they do is because they are comfortable with each other.
Mind you, 49% wished their partner was more romantic.
What’s the bet that 49% were ladies?
Valentine’s Day would be a good time to make amends for all those lapsed lovers to get back on track.
Buy your partner a present and plan a romantic evening. Pack the kids off to grandma’s and get a meal deal from Marks and Spencer’s, dress to seductively impress, light the candles and put on a Stevie Wonder album of mood music.
After all, you might not get another chance.
On Friday a giant asteroid is due to brush past the Earth within 17,000 miles of the planet. This will be closer than any object previously recorded.
Who knows? It could make the earth move for both of you.
