And let’s not forget to blame our parents…
According to psychologist Albert Bandura, many of our thought patterns, beliefs, and behaviors are learned through watching and imitating the influential people around us, and that certainly includes our parents.
We might, for example, mimic their communication styles. If our parents bicker, use sarcasm, or yell when they argue, we’re likely to adopt these same tactics. If they avoid dealing with issues head on, we may have difficulty confronting our own problems as adults. Furthermore, whether or not we believe our parents were happy can influence our overall perspective on marriage. We see marriage as good or bad, depending on what it was like in our home, and that’s how we’ll think about our own marriage.
