Counseling 5

Not a terribly exciting session, but that can be a good thing.

We talked about this conversation, and Counselor expressed approval that we had come to at least one agreement -- viz., to keep living under the same roof somehow as long as the children are growing. He also agreed that this agreement should lower the level of overall stress, because we won't each of us be worried that the other is about to launch a pre-emptive strike.

We also talked about this argument, and about my request that Wife give me some verbal flag I can use, so that she knows that I am trying to convey data and not a criticism. She suggested "By the way, I don't mean to criticize but ..." Personally that sounds to me like it is guaranteed to be the opening of a stinging criticism, but I didn't argue. If those are the words she wants me to use, I'll use them. And we'll see how it goes.

More discussion about how we felt about all this, and how it related to our childhoods (sigh) but nothing terribly useful. The useful work was all done in our talk over the weekend, I think. This session with Counselor was more like follow up ....