Close Relationships and Communication

People who have close relationships often find that they feel as if they communicate with one another better than they actually do. Because they spend such a great amount of time together, they can become accustomed to one another, and not take the time to truly think about, and consider the feelings or thoughts that may be running through the other person’s mind.
    Your spouse expects you to understand them better than anyone else, but the statistics show that accuracy rates between couples and complete strangers are strikingly similar. This leads researchers to believe that due to the familiarity that occurs within households, and between people of intimate relations, a misunderstanding of communication begins to develop that many of us miss, or do not want to realize exists.
    It is easier and possibly more conducive to our relationships and our lives to believe that we always understand what our spouse is thinking. Take for instance the couple that has been happily married for fifty years, they will tell you that they read each others thoughts and that they are on the “same wavelength”.   While, this may be true some oft eh time, it is not true all of the time, and believing that it is can cause people to miss out on the subtle cues and other inferences that may occur from their spouse that they are unaware of.
    I see this happen very often in my household. My wife and I see to miscommunicate much more lately than I would like to see, and it can be very hurtful, and damaging to the relationship. Recently, I allowed my wife to handle the discipline of one of our children, and when she was down, I came into the room   and felt as if she had not been harsh enough with the child, and that perhaps, I should reiterate the things I had assumed she had said to the child. By doing so, I actually seemed to make the situation worse, and my wife felt completely walked on.
    My wife felt like I ended up being manipulated by the child, and I felt as if she...