CHAPTER 17MARRIAGE AS A BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP
BEFORE the marriage day there should be a very definite and complete understanding of each other's aims and ideals. Those who put their best foot forward before marriage are certain to trip on the other foot afterward. Absolute honesty before marriage is the best insurance against divorce.
There are two sides to marriage. There is the love side, which thrives on the little attentions and appreciations of courtship. And there is the business side of marriage, the economics side, which is to the love side exactly what the foundation of a house is to the superstructure. So in order to insure marriage the couple must not only strive to love, honor and court each other, but they must make and live up to a just business partnership agreement which will take care of the economics side of the marriage. You may depend that love will die if its foundation is one of unjust economics.
In other words, the husband should encourage and back his wife in the home, the woman should back the man in his business, and encourage him in every way possible. And always there should be absolute honesty with each other in regard to both departments.
But this does not mean that the husband should bring home all his pessimisms and fears, and pour them out on his wife at night; nor does it mean that the woman should store up all the little annoyances of the day and pour them out on the head of the husband. It means that they shall tell all the facts necessary to give to each other the correct understanding of the way things are going in both departments. It is facts, courage and appreciation that should be exchanged, discouragement and little annoyances and worries should be dropped into the bottomless pit of forgetfulness where they can do nobody any harm.
In an honest business partnership each partner draws his salary, and the profits are shared equally. Every wife should have an allowance for personal use, corresponding to a salary, and every man and wife should run all their business affairs on a mutually agreed budget plan.
The business partnership between man and wife must assign to each his and her clearly defined work, and each must aim to become efficient and praiseworthy in his particular department, taking pains not to interfere in the other department.
In the ordinary home the husband should be the head of the business, and make the decisions for the business; the wife should be the head of the household, and she is the one who should make the decisions in regard to the household, and the training of the children. In the household it is the man's place to co-operate under the orders of his wife. In the man's business life it is his place to decide, and it is the woman's place to take orders and co-operate. WHEN YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH YOUR ENVIRONMENT >
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