10 things spouses need to keep the family happy

Family is where we can find love, sharing, and comfort. Building a happy family requires the collective effort of both the husband and wife. In this article, Thay Thich Truc Thai Minh will share 10 practical teachings from the Buddha to keep your family happy.

1. The Husband must remain respectful and loving to his wife

After getting married, the husband still needs to respect, love, and cherish his wife, he must never look down on her. Men tend to cherish women the most when they don't belong to them yet, but once they do, men tend to take women for granted.

Therefore, you should keep your respect and love for your wife throughout your life, and never belittle her.

2. The husband must take good care of the wife

The Buddha taught that husbands must know how to take care of their wives by providing them with adequate food, never letting their wives go hungry. Because the wife is the physically weaker one, and has to endure a lot, like during childbirths. Therefore, husbands must not let their wives go hungry and take care of them.

3. The husband must beautify his wife

The husband must know how to buy his wife jewelry suitable to his financial conditions: If one is not too well-off, he should buy something affordable; if one is rich, he should buy something valuable. Wives are like flowers in the house. No one wants to see a withered flower, they like a fresh one. To keep the flower fresh, you must water and take care of it; otherwise, when the flower withers, as the husband, you may feel like going out to see other flowers.

Therefore, beautifying and taking care of his wife is what a man should do to preserve family happiness.

4. The husband should let the wife manage his property

In Vietnam and many Asian cultures, the wife is like the treasury vault of the family. When men bring home their money and belongings, they should entrust them to their wives. A family should only have one common fund. Otherwise, no one would know whose expenses are whose in the household, and dividing expenses between the husband and wife is not how a family should be. Therefore, the family must be united financially, even if one person earns more.

Furthermore, financial matters in a marriage should be planned from the start. Once a family is established, there are many things to worry about. When children are born, there are even more expenses. Many young couples don't know how to manage their finances, leading to conflicts and arguments, and eventually separation due to financial issues.

Therefore, it's essential for you to sit together and plan your finances right at the beginning, have clear financial arrangements, know how to spend on what, allocate funds for recreation, savings, etc. Having a comprehensive spending plan will lead to a more relaxing life.

5. The husband needs to avoid indecent women

The husband must be aware that he is a married man, when doing business away from his wife, he must protect his dignity and stay away from women who flirt with or tease him.

6. The wife should always express love and respect for her husband and welcome him home with a smile

When in love, people often greet each other with a smile on their lips. However, after getting married, that smile is often replaced by grimaces and irritation.

"Why are you just coming back now? Where have you been? Why are you so late? You're never on time."

That's the common mentality of women: once they're married, they tend to micromanage their husbands. If the husband comes home just a bit late, they get upset.

The Buddha taught that as the wife, you must maintain your smile. Whether your husband is near or far, always be cheerful and pleasant with him. The key here is mutual trust. If you micromanage your husband, it can cause conflicts.

The wife should be the place where the husband finds solace, where he can release all the tension and the frustrations of his job. Only then can the family truly be happy.

7. The wife should take good care of housework

Although we are in the modern time, we don't have to do laborious housework like in the past, basic skills such as cooking, picking vegetablse and washing clothes are still required. The wife should take care of household chores, which is also a way to maintain the happiness of the family.

8. The wife must not keep money to herself

If the husband has entrusted the assets to his wife for management, the wife should also not keep assets to herself but should share a common fund with her husband. Only in this way can trust be complete, and the family can be truly united.

9. The wife should listen when the husband gives advice

The husband often takes the role of a father or older brother in the family. Thus, he often gives lessons and advice to the wife.

When the husband does so, the wife should listen, not argue or be confrontational.

If you keep being bitter, always nitpicking, your husband may react negatively, going against your wishes right away. Therefore, the wife needs to know how to listen to her husband, behave gently with him; that is the key to maintaining harmony in a marital relationship.

10. The wife must remain faithful to her husband, without any intention of having an affair with anyone

The Buddha did not prohibit friendship between men and women, but the wife must set boundaries. She should not be too close to male friends like before she got married.

If the wife and husband can love each other like that, their family will be happy for their whole life.