17 Things From 17 Years: Post 8

#8: Express appreciation for what your husband does. Over and over. Many times. Sincerely.

We all like to be appreciated for what we do. Children light up and go the extra mile when they are praised; a weary Mom receives new courage from a child's simple thank you or a stranger's quiet compliment. There are many stories of students who's teacher made all the difference in their lives because she praised them for what they did well. Men aren't any different.

I don't think we've been taught very well to express appreciation to our men. We get this idea that men are tough, they're not feelings oriented, they're logical and stoic; expressing appreciation isn't that important.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Tell him. Tell him you appreciate how he goes to work day after day to make a living, tell him how you appreciate when he offers to help, tell him how you love to see him interacting with your children, tell him you appreciate how he hangs up his towel, tell him, tell him, tell him. Tell him how much you appreciated him doing the thing you asked him plainly to do. I know you secretly think if he really loved you, you wouldn't have to ask. But you asked and he did it! He didn't have to; express your appreciation.

You want to know something? A lot of men don't want to do things for their wives because they feel like they can't ever do enough; what's the point? Translation: they don't feel appreciated.

"I can do all that stuff for her and she's not even going to appreciate it. She just expects me to do it because she thinks it's what I should be doing."

There is power in expressing appreciation. It means just as much to a man as it does to anyone else.

Tell him.