10 Things I Can Do to Make My Man Happy (and Not Make Me Any Less So)

I stumbled on an interesting blog post at Spousonmics yesterday that inspired me to give some thought to the things I can do for my husband to make him happier—that don’t make me any worse off.

So what got me thinking about that? Pareto efficiency, that’s what.

The concept is simple enough.  A marriage is “pareto efficient” if: “there is no simple change that would make either person happier, or just as happy.” And that got me thinking.

My husband is a happy enough guy, and outside of the “obvious” things that make him happy (keep it clean, people! My kids read this blog)…I wondered (for a moment) if perhaps we’d reached the point in our marriage where there was nothing more we could possibly do to make each other happier than we are today. Could it be? Could we have perfected this marriage thing?

…nah! I was fairly certain that my husband would say that there are many things I could “still” do that would make him happier (and still not make me any worse off.)

So, Happy Valentine’s Day, honey. Here are 10 things I know I can do for you that will make you happier.

1. Stop telling you how to drive (aka…ignore your mild road rage)
2. Stop moving everything you own, and forgetting where I put it
3. Entertain the notion that my way isn’t the only way (I stole that one..but it fits)
4. Keep my daily recap (rant) short and sweet
5. Spend more time shopping at Victoria Secret
6. Try to remember to put laundry into the dryer the first day it was washed
7. Find a system to organize my passwords
8. Learn to love Sci-Fi films
9. Stop complaining about your spaghetti
10. Try to stay awake for an entire movie on date night

As nice as it sounds–this “pareto efficient” marriage thing– I think there is always SOMETHING you can do to make a person happy (er). And fooling yourself into thinking you’ve reached ultimate perfection is a slippery slope, my friend.

What’s on your list?

photo credit: elycfeliz