15 Steps to Healthy Male-Female Relationships

As a single parent, if you are in an intense emotional relationship that begins to deteriorate, it can have a devastating effect both on your mental health and on your relationship with your children.

Also, if you are someone who needs that type of relationship to feel personally fulfilled, then you need to take these steps to make sure that it’s a healthy one.

Read these 15 Steps and use what applies to you.

1. Learn about the values and lifestyle of the other person
Your rules of your life are your values. Determine if your values and the other person's are compatible. Ask yourself constantly, "What is the right thing to do?” Consider what changes you would have to make. And, remember that one change makes way for the next and gives you the opportunity to grow.

If you are a woman and are serious about establishing a quality relationship with a man, offer to share his interests, and go with him to places he likes to go. Do it actively and enthusiastically. If you think that the places he likes to go are too way out and would require too much of an adjustment for you, but his other qualities make him worthwhile, then discuss it with him and work out a compromise.

2. Get to know his friends, relatives, and acquaintances.
There is an old saying; by your friends you shall know them. If your man is one who is upwardly mobile, you can quickly tell that by his choice of friends. Look for such qualities as stability, industriousness, self-discipline, and honesty. An upwardly mobile man will immediately demonstrate these qualities.

3. Don't let yourself be swayed by others opinion.
Do not discuss your boyfriend with your female friend. And if you are a man, do not discuss your girlfriend with your male friend. Don't push obligations early and never ask to borrow money even if you really need it and feel certain that she would loan it to you.

4. Clarify sex roles and responsibilities
Eliminate role conflict. Each family, knowingly or unknowingly, maintains a system in which members fulfill certain roles or functions. Family members are most comfortable when these roles are carefully spelled out. Develop clear division of labor and capacity. God made women and men different and we should appreciate and respect the differences instead of trying to act as if there are no differences.

Acquire flexibility to adjust to different sex roles. Each of us in the course of a day, occupy different roles, but not the least in importance are the roles of husband, wife, father, and mother. Seek to grow in the different roles. We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

5. Provide mutual support and encouragement in meeting responsibilities. 
We live by encouragement, and we die without it---slowly, sadly, and angrily. Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. Smile and offer a word of optimism and hope. Say "you can do it" when things are tough. No dominant role should be the woman's and no submissive role should be the man's. Each family, knowingly or unknowingly, maintains a system in which members fulfill certain roles or functions. Whenever possible, the man should always be the primary breadwinner.

6. Sex can be a part of your overall relationship, but don't build your relationship solely on it.
If having sex is a part of your relationship and you sincerely desire to make each other happy, then there's no such thing as boring sex. Don't make getting an orgasm the essence of a sexual relationship. Foreplay is whatever makes both individuals look forward to sexual intercourse. Always make time for sex whether it’s in the morning, afternoon, or evening.

7. Be flexible in how you can meet your mate.
Be open to the possibilities of meeting someone any place, anywhere. Every lonely person should remember that meeting a suitable partner to build abiding love and happiness needs only one connection, one meeting, one social function, one planned effort...and any time could be that one time.  Possibilities for contacting potential, romantic-love partners increase proportionately with the number of approaches made towards potential partners.

Don't be turned off by the other's approach. Stop letting age be a factor. Get beyond the superficial. Discover each other's values and interests. Sex can be on the first night, the second night, or any other night. Don't let others determine the quality of your sexual relationship. And, don't discuss your sexual relationship with others.

8. Work on Your own Level of Emotional Maturity.
Strive to become emotionally self-reliant. It is estimated that only about ten percent of the population has developed emotional self-reliance. The ability to think and act independently is the essence of being emotionally self-reliant. It begins when we are determined to do everything we can possibly do for ourselves, emotionally and physically, in preference to seeking someone to do it for us.

9. Balance your relationship with other friends.
Consider this definition of a friend -- a friend is a person who listens attentively while you are saying nothing. Or try this one -- a friend is someone who knows you well and still likes you. Remember who is the most important person in your life, but don't neglect your own personal growth.

10. Dwell on the best qualities in the other person, rather than the worst. 
Accept stress as a normal consequence of being alive, so use it to your advantage. Learn to appreciate your own company. By itself, marriage has little or no relationship to happiness. It is a by-product of a self-reliant, productive, and creative way of life. The individual who has not learned to be happy while single has just as little chance of being happy in marriage.

11. Develop and maintain your interests and hobbies, but don't let it affect your commitment.
Continue to learn and to develop your mind. Remember, the mind is like the stomach. It’s not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests. Keep in mind that doing interesting things makes you an interesting person.

12. Take time for personal rejuvenation, growth, and sustenance
a. Take time to work. It’s the price of success. b. Take time to think. It’s the source of power. c. Take time to read. It’s the fountain of wisdom. d. Take Time to Dream. It’s hitching your wagon to a star. e. Take Time to be friendly. It’s the road to happiness. f. Take time to love and be loved. It’s the privilege of the gods. g. Take time to play. It’s the secret of perpetual youth. h. Take time to look around. It’s too short a day to be selfish. i. Take time to laugh. It is the music of the soul.

13. Develop knowledge of the things that interest your partner 
Check different sources for continuing learning. Keep up with current events and build your vocabulary. To relax the mind is to lose it. If you are not working at a regular job, become involved in community activities. Discover if your hobby can be developed into a money- making activity.

14. Be Willing to Converse and Discuss, but Never Argue
Resolve any differences before going to bed. Communication does not begin with being understood, but with understanding others. Always keep open lines of communication. The real art of conversation is not to say the right thing, in the right moment, in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing.

As long as at the tempting word remains unspoken, you are its master; once you utter it, you are its slave. Always look to give praise and compliments, rather than criticism. The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. Reinforce the good things that your mate does, you'll make sure those get repeated.

15. Recognize the difference between a discussion and an argument and choose discussion. 
Arguments are attempts to manipulate and subordinate others. We argue only if we feel weak. If we feel we are in the dominating position, we do not bother to argue. Arguing is a form of nagging and is always a clear sign of dependency. When we give up trying to influence others, we have no further need to argue with them.

Discussion is the anvil on which the spark of truth is struck. When arguing with a difficult person, make sure that you try to look at matters from the other's point of view. Realize that the other's point of is a result of their personality, education, and experiences.

It’s important for your mental health and well-being that your relationships are healthy ones. Become more self-reliant and make sure that your relationships are mutually beneficial.  You’ll be a much happier person.


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Single Parent Guide to Raising a Mentally Healthy Child

A mentally healthy child, as well as a physically healthy child is what all parents desire. 

As a single parent, it is a challenge that requires you to fully use your abilities, energy, and resources to develop a physically healthy child. 

Your child needs to eat the right foods, get the proper rest, and have time for exercise and active play. 

But how do you raise a mentally healthy child?

Despite often inconsistent and ineffective parenting, the good news is that most children grow up and exhibit the range of expected mentally healthy behaviors. Somehow the child receives enough love, attention and discipline to achieve emotional balance. 

In addition to this, between the family, the extended family, teachers, coaches, and even neighbors, the child finds at least one role model in an effort to discover what it means to be an adult man or woman. However, inconsistent and ineffective parenting along with a bad neighborhood can be risk factors for a mentally unhealthy child and may lead a youngster to engage in unlawful or self-destructive behavior.

What You Can Do as a Single Parent
The challenge is to continue to improve the quality of your parenting and, if you are in a bad neighborhood environment, to reduce or mitigate the impact of the neighborhood on your child.  

Consider this as a parent because it may pertain to you and you can be instrumental in bringing this into existence. A parenting group which offers information and mutual support can be very beneficial. Parents often have to be engaged where they naturally come together or where they can be drawn together for the benefit of their children. 

Parents who have children in day care or Head Start programs can be engaged on the site; parents who have youngsters in park district programs can be engaged on the site; churches can reserve space and engage parents on the site; and even public schools can make the schools  parent-friendly and strongly promote parent-teacher cooperation.

Once a parenting group is established, notifications can be placed in the local grocery store, the local laundromat, the local restaurant, the local gas station, the local drug store, and the local libraries in an effort to gain the parents' attention and participation. 

As parents begin attending a informative, productive, and stimulating group, word of mouth will keep the group growing and increasing in importance and ultimately having a positive impact on the neighborhood.

Take Your Role Seriously
It is important to take the role of being a parent seriously and consider these parenting resources carefully if you are becoming stressed out. 

Without each generation succeeding each other by bringing into being productive, well-balanced citizens, our world will cease to exist as we know it. It is important give your child a balance of love and discipline and an opportunity to realize his gifts and potential. 

To have a mentally healthy child, be the role model you want your child to emulate, teach the child how to behave in different situations, provide the necessary guidance, have the pleasant conversations, and do fun things together.


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