Essential Manners for Couples: From Snoring and Sex to Finances and Fighting Fair-What Works, What Doesn't, and Why - Hardcover

Post, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006077665X ISBN 13: 9780060776657

Publisher: William Morrow, 2005

Synopsis

From the man who closed the lid forever on the "toilet seat debate" in the New York Times bestseller Essential Manners for Men comes the follow-up book that paves the way for couples everywhere to fix relationship problems before they start.

Peter Post offers the secrets to a long and happy marriage or partnership—without psychoanalysis or prescription medication. The good news: often just a few simple words or actions can mend a rift. Essential Manners for Couples reveals how easy it can be to keep the spark in your relationship.

With self-deprecating humor, clarity, and wit, Peter recounts couples' most mischievous manners foibles (his own included). Essential Manners for Couples is based on Emily Post Institute surveys, Peter's years of fielding thousands of etiquette questions, popular demand from couples attending his national lectures and workshops, and his experience as a husband and father.

Peter looks at couples' private lives and public lives, revealing the common "flashpoints"—the places, situations, and times when inconsiderate behavior is most likely to invade your blissful coupledom. He offers "etiquette imperatives"—simple truths and concise nuggets of advice not to be ignored, including:

• Permissive flirting: How to define parameters and enjoy verbal combat with the opposite sex.
• The "Chore I.Q." test—are you really divvying up the workload fairly?
• When you hate her friends: socializing with the enemy.
• Enter children: Good parents still spend time together as a couple.
• Bedroom etiquette—getting beyond the headache excuse.
• Interactions with in-laws—smooth merge or crash and burn?
• Where to go for the holidays: surviving family visits and how to say "no."
• Balancing life with your other significant other—your work ... and much more.

Essential Manners for Couples is a must-have resource for the couple who wants to celebrate their union and strengthen it. As Peter Post says, "By using the principles of etiquette, couples can avoid many of the potholes on the road of their shared life, and the ones they do hit are smaller and more manageable." With this book in hand, you'll enhance your relationship, head off hostilities, and have fun doing it.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Post, great-grandson of Emily Post and a passionate golfer, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Essential Manners for Men, Essential Manners for Couples, The Etiquette Advantage in Business (with Anna Post, Lizzie Post, and Daniel Post Senning), and his weekly business etiquette column Etiquette at Work in the Boston Globe. The father of two grown daughters, he lives with his wife in Vermont.

Review:

“Thorough...straightforward....Resolving those hot-button issues...may well prevent a public flame-out.” (New York Times)

“Most of us could stand to be reminded once in a while to be nice to each other.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 006077665X
• ISBN 13: 9780060776657
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288