A Balanced Relationship

My initial frame of reference for a relationship was not a balanced one.  The role I played in my family of origin was one of care taker and peace maker.

After rebelling against this as a teenager, I fully embraced it as an adult and repeated the pattern many, many times.  But as my awareness grew, my choices for relationships improved because I started to develop my fairness guide.

This guide is about stepping back and analyzing the big picture (not just the day-to-day activities) to make an evaluation on fairness and balance in the relationship.  When considering an adult relationship, it is important overall to invest the same amount of work as the other person to achieve balance, and this can always be accomplished by contributing more or less effort.