Honey, we need to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Honey. We Need to chat. This is the podcast all about relationship and communication in the relationship. Other way around. I should have said that communication in the relationship. Anyway, either way, we talk about stuff. Those are our keywords. The words that we use in this. We are that podcast. Yeah, we are the one. We are the one that does that.
If you are here for the first time, thank you guys so much for tuning in. If you were here for not the first time, welcome back. Great to have you back. You being here tells us something about you, right? It tells us that you don't want a surface level relationship. It tells us that you understand that this takes work, this takes commitment and you have that curiosity and that willingness to grow and learn. So that is amazing.
Thank you so much for tuning in. If you find value in this podcast and would love to help us out, please, please, please do all the things like share, subscribe, comment, all that stuff goes a long way for us. We don't make any money from this podcast. So well, this is just our time to connect with you guys. We've been so fortunate and blessed to be invested in in our relationship.
We've had opportunities to grow together and we continue to grow and we want to grow with you and we just find value and action in that. So thank you so much for tuning in. I am Blair mines Blair, this is my wife Amy, and we are just your everyday couple going through your everyday struggles to show you that you can too. So thank you so much for being here, guys. Yeah, thank you so much for being here. We're really excited to dive into this conversation today.
This is one of those kind of broad dynamics. We've had a few episodes like this where it's like, yes, this isn't everything, everyone thing. Yeah. And this is another one of those broad dynamics that plays out in relationships, and it's called unspoken contracts. And we're going to dive into a little bit about what exactly these are and how they might play out in relationships. Yeah, in a little bit. But how are you out of town today, babe?
It's a good question. You tell me you're gonna ask me that question. Freezed. Yeah. I reckon I'm a nine. I am a busy 9. I went for a walk this morning and even woke up a little bit early this morning. My mind was busy and it was actually nice because I wasn't stressed. Yeah, it was busy and I could tell that difference between like anxious, stress, work stuff, overwhelmed, too busy. And I'm like, Oh no, this is manageable. I like, it sucks that I woke up
early, but it's manageable. It's not like me, I'm gonna do all this stuff. It's like, OK, no, this is what I gotta do. And and. Cool, I love that. Yeah, sounds good. How are you? Yeah, I'm probably a nine as well. This is a very busy week for me too. It is. This is show week. So you would have heard over the last few episodes I was talking about the show that I'm in, which has come from away and that is opening tomorrow night, which is really exciting. Tomorrow night for us when we're
recording. Not for when this comes out. When this comes out, I'll be on the other side of opening weekend and I will be hopefully feeling great or exhausted. But yeah, very busy every night. Rehearsals from I have to be there at 5:00 till like 10:30. It's been a lot. And that's just going to continue. But it's also the exciting part of the show, seeing it all come together, seeing the lights and that kind of thing. So that's why I look the way I do today.
No makeup because I'm going to have a lot of makeup on tonight. So I put my glasses on in case you're watching. This is tired face, Amy. You can't tell because I got my glasses on now. You can tell because I told you. But. The glasses are magic. Yeah, they are magic. You don't need them. Oh, thanks, baby. All right, well, let's dive into this, this dynamic unspoken contracts.
I had an image that came to mind as I was preparing for this, and it kind of summarises everything we do on this podcast. And I was thinking about how if something's wrong with your car, you can open the boot of your car, not the boot on it. You can open the bottle in your car. This is just going to really reinforce the point I'm about to make and see an engine and people like me don't know anything about what's happening. Like I can probably identify a
few things. I know where I put water when I need to fill the water, and I know where the battery is. What's the waterfall? To keep the car, it's just to do the windshields. And and radiate it too, but you put. Yep. Anyway, so to just really, really hone in on this point, I don't know anything about what's happening under the bonnet of the car, but I do know that that's where things run.
And I know that the more I learn, if I was to study what goes on in the engine of a car, I would start to learn about the different systems that make the car run. There's different systems in this engine that works together to make the car work. And so when you're someone like a mechanic trying to problem solve why a car isn't working the way it's supposed to work, you have understanding of how these different systems work so you can look at it and it makes
sense. And it's a little bit the same with relationships. We have relationships. I know when I get behind the wheel of my car, I turn it on and I can drive and it can drive smoothly for the most part. Every now and then things get clunky, things break down, things just come to a screeching halt, and that's where I don't have that education to know what's happening there. So as relationships unfold, we can have really smooth rides.
And a lot of the time when you first get together, you have a really smooth ride. It's kind of like honeymoon period, you hear people call it, and it's like your drive to be together, the excitement that comes with that, everything being new and fresh and all of that sort of stuff makes it feel
very smooth. And then the more you go, the more normal life comes in, the more you need to start to learn what's going on under the bonnet of your relationship and what systems are maybe failing or need a little bit of support to make them work better. And each of these frameworks we go through is like a new system that we're learning in the engine. So it's like a new lens to look at when we're trying to be like, why something off?
So that could be the love languages, that could be the Four Horsemen. All these different terminologies that we've been putting to these systems help us diagnose what is happening when we're having something running rough or when something's just not working the way it's meant to. And that's the same with this. This is a system that runs for everybody. It's like just, it happens in relationships and it runs for
everybody. But until you have a framework or like an education on what it is, you might not even know that it's happening. And then when something goes wrong, you don't know how to tackle it. You don't know how to identify where along the way it's fallen apart. I just need to say before we move on, 'cause it's gonna stay in my head. I said that you put water in the radiator. You can put water in the radiator, but you need to put call on in the. Radiator Blair needs to prove
that he knows the. System. No, I just know. It's not that. It's like I feel like someone gonna listen. It's like you're an idiot. Like No, no, I know, but you don't. He knows that I know. Yeah, it's a little bit like on YouTube right now. I'm being trolled for how I say assume. And I'm so sorry that I say assume wrong. But it's also so funny because it's just boosting our engagement on the real, on the video that we put up. Yeah, people are like assume. Yeah, assume.
And then I ask my friends, they all say assume. Yeah, I say assume. Yeah. So I know that it's assume it's. Probably it's. Probably Aussie. Yeah, probably Aussie, Yeah. We're lazy speakers, Yeah, to back off, back off, but also it's hilarious and keep going. You're welcome to get. Our engagement. Yeah, if you're really hyped up about this radiator thing, please feel free to share it how you feel. Look at this guy say this stupid thing about the radiator. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tell us. Tell me two mean things about me, but tell me one nice thing about me. Yeah, I'd appreciate that. I'll be the nice thing. Thanks. Yeah. All right, Well, now that we got the clarification, I could see it in your face as I'm explaining to you. I was like, am I off? Am I not making sense? And then you're bargaining me radiator. So that's how it works in a car. And that's just a picture that helps me when I was trying to figure out like how to bring up
these topics. I think it it's helpful. The more clarity we have. That's why we have this podcast. That's why we discuss these things. That's why communication is so important and why learning about yourself is so important. None of these things we've talked about is the thing. Like none of them is. That's the one thing you need and then you're going to be
fine. They all work together to build a picture of who you are as individuals and how you're working as a relationship and then help you to strengthen it as you go. And this is another one of those things. So this is unspoken contracts. If you are in relationship with anybody, you you have unspoken contracts. They just naturally start to form the more time you spend with people.
I just wanna say as well, before we move on, just all these things that are in my head, Yeah, I'm using my mug one of our listeners sent in, which is really nice. It's a Star Wars mug that like, lights up all these lightsabers when it's it's hot and then they go down when it's not hot. This is an observation episode. It is. It's a Chitty Chitty. Yeah, chit chat.
All right, so unspoken contracts, if you're in relationship either friendships, romantic relationships, families, even work, everybody has these built unspoken contracts. They start slowly. They start for a number of reasons. You could be bringing in family history, traditions, what you've seen and experienced when you're growing up. You could just find yourself in a natural rhythm when you're coexisting with somebody that start to form into just a
pattern. And basically it's, it's not a contract you sit down and you agree on, though sometimes you will have that sort of thing. So we had premarital, premarital counselling before we got married and there were things that they had highlighted for us to discuss. So things like what tasks around the house will do and that kind of thing. That was a conversation we had, but we also would have fallen into patterns like that even if we hadn't had the verbal conversation.
So you don't sit down and draught a contract. But they are little understandings that start to build over time about who's going to fill what role and how you're going to coexist. They're really normal. They're in every relationship, and they are not bad themselves. So just to be clear as we start, these unspoken contracts are not
bad and they're just natural. And when things aren't working well, they need to be assessed and maybe discussed and figure out how to make it balance and work a little bit better for you as a family and as a relationship. But they aren't bad in and of themselves. Even the ones that are out of balance, they're not bad. They're just a natural way that we exist in the world. So just have a bit of grace for yourself with them too.
They help us to create structure in our lives, in our relationships, predictability in our relationships. They help us to just survive. They help us to maintain the things we need to maintain as adults to their, their, how we figure out who's going to, you know, make dinner, who's going to pick up the kids, who's going to manage the bills, who's going to work, who's going to blah, blah, blah. That's how they work for us and they serve a purpose for us, but
we're not always aware of them. And often we're not aware of them until something isn't working very well. And then we'll start to, we might not even be aware that that system's playing out, but we'll start to be like something is not right and we can start to see some of the symptoms of it not functioning well. So they exist and that's normal, but we just need to be careful to put some intentionality around it. So that's what unspoken
contracts are. We're going to look at some examples of how they might be playing out because it's a big concept and I want to get a little bit more specific on it. So, and it's funny, when I was writing these up as well, all of these have played out for us and all of them have flip flopped over the time as well. So you may or may not resonate with one side of this, but just have a listen to some of these examples. One is the financial manager.
So one person might start to naturally take charge of the finances and they might just naturally have, they either have a framework for finances before they come in. Maybe they've seen that parent in their family manage finances. Maybe they've got their own savings going, they've got their own accounts going. That was you and we got together. Blair was a lot further ahead in financial independence and maturity than I was.
So you had systems in place, you became the person that was that overseas our savings and you have like our accounts and you have a structure. But then interestingly, another, you know, another person or the same person might cover all the bills. I was that person. So when we got married, I just became the bill person. And I don't think you would have any idea about the bills that get paid for the most part. No, no, they just sort of come.
Through, yeah, they just come through and I do, and I've managed them since the very beginning. Don't know where that happened. Just started happening and it became an unspoken contract. Someone might be tracking, you know, how we're going financially. Another person might have absolutely no idea, like one partner might be completely in the dark. And I've had friends voice to me that they, they're like, oh, I really don't know anything about our finances.
And there's a bit of a concern there because if something happens, they're going to have a very steep learning curve or they won't know where the information is that they need to get. So that might be one way you see an unspoken contract playing out in your relationship.
Another really important one is an intimacy initiator, and this has also played out for us where you fall into a pattern from the beginning for whatever reason, whatever context that one partner initiates intimacy, even affection initiates affection and intimacy in any way. And the other person becomes more and more and more just the receiver or the recipient or the person that decides yes or no. But that can be a pattern that you fall into. We've had that play out for us
as well. And it's really interesting because as you look at these patterns, it might feel easy to you to identify all this person's the sacrificial one or the good one or the hard working 1, and this person's the one that's being lazy or the one that's like not carrying their weight or something like that. But the interesting dynamic with these contracts is there's impacts both sides.
So when we've had this one play out, for example, you became the initiator and we've had conversations where started to be like, I would really like you to initiate a little bit. But my perspective of it was I felt less and less like I had autonomy or like choice in this space because of different things that played out. And so I was more and more pulling back from initiating. And from your perspective, you're like, she's like feeling less and less wanted.
And then I'm feeling less and less like capable in that space. And it's just, it's such a dynamic contract that plays out. And until we had that conversation, didn't know those things were happening. Yeah. Another one might be social keeper. So calendar keeper. We these all relate as well to some of the other topics we've talked about South, like mental load and emotional load. A lot of these play out here. Yeah. And like unmet needs? Unmet needs, yeah, exactly. Or anything, Yeah.
Yeah, so someone might keep the calendar like this, we're going here this time or might be the person that responds to the social like texts and that kind of thing. I find that I tend to be, although you have been putting a lot of effort in there, the one that will manage like your mum might message about a social thing for us.
Even though it's your mom, I'll be responding to her and I'll respond to my mom and I'll respond to whoever else and I'll be like, oh, we've got this party, we've got this thing, that kind of thing. That's just, that's what I tend to do more of. You're more intentional with that now. So you are kind of taking some
of that, yeah. And I think as well, just to be clear, like, you know, some of these areas as well have been a source of frustration like, you know, and that's where it's been a lot of work for both of us. So with the whole messaging thing, So for me, like I do put my phone away or because I get overwhelmed with my phone and people messaging me and so much because I'm on my working remotely, I get everything through phone or email or, you know, all these different
messages, you don't have many in person conversation. So I can have all the excuses in the world by the end of the day that's putting out mental load or a burden onto you. Like that is still valid. So it's not saying if I responded back to that and be like, well, no, I have, you know, I struggle because of this, this and this and the struggle is still there. Like you still have that
struggle. So anyway, what I'm trying to say is at the end of the day, we've had to really work through a lot of these areas and it's been so important because then I can with my strategic brain be like, all right, cool. Well, you know, I don't have to be. This is how I cannot be so overwhelmed with my phone, you know, and it's like, all right, well, I know this is going to be a burden or a mental load onto Amy's or what can I do to do that in a way that is, is healthy for me as well.
It's important for you but healthy for me. So rather than trying to cut it off, avoid it. You could work through different ways and and stuff. And interestingly too on this one, and it'll be the same for everything, but it this one, you know, it might look very obvious like so one partner is carrying the mental load and the other person's just going along for the ride. But the idea of just being a passenger at the whim of the other person's like scheduling is, is also can also be a sore
point. So just being like, we always just go where you want to go and do what you want to do and you're the one that manages that. So there are multiple perspectives and multiple layers that play into these things. And, and you guys can be like the best team about it, right? So one person might take more of a lead on calendar, for example, but let's let's go this one
actually. So you talked before about how I more manage the savings and all that different accounts and stuff, but you more manage the bills. So how that's worked well is like you will communicate with me. It's like, oh, we've got these bills coming up. Or you might be like, look, we don't have enough, like we're not putting enough aside for bills. So I had all these different accounts for all these different purposes, right?
So I would budget accordingly. So my wage would come in and I'd break it up evenly to all these different areas. And a lot of that was based off the conversation that you and I had about upcoming bills or mortgage or whatever else, right? So the team element is really what's really important here. It's not saying necessarily that I, all right, so now I need to do all the bills because Amy's been doing all the bills and she shouldn't be doing all the bills. It's not saying that.
It's saying that, well, how does this actually complement each other to work together when it's not completed? Implementing is when it can be an issue. If you're not communicating about that, it's more likely going. To be an issue and these systems will continue. So these systems at their point of being aware of them is not to make everything fair and equal because it's not going to be the same. It just doesn't work that way. And this one in particular,
we've had time. So you are over the savings and the accounts and then I was over the bills and then we've had times where I was over the savings and the money because we had a big chunk of money come in and I was managing that and I was so stressed out managing that. Like I was really burdened all the time. And we had the conversation and then you, I was like, you take it, I don't want the money. I just want to manage the bills because I get very stressed if I have to manage the money.
Yeah, you get really stressed if you don't know where the money is. Yeah, that's true. So or if it's like what's coming up or whatever, because this is again and we're going to talk about more this soon. But in our previous episode we did, Amy took me through a coaching course. So Amy does coaching and I'm going to share about that more. But we did an episode on that because we had a lot of questions about what is coaching. So go check that out.
But what came out of that was it highlighted my need for certainty. I needed to know what was coming in and what was going out so I can have that plan when I don't know. So I really struggled actually when you took most of the that savings and stuff, except I
don't know what's happening. I can't, my brain just doesn't like know what's going on. And we've had to actually navigate this recently too, because we've moved to from having all of our, you know, money split off into different accounts, all being put into an offset account. And it's like, well, that's my budget gone. Like I had everything laid out. I have a whole structure now
that's at a place. So we explored that and it would do again, just highlighting so much how much I needed that certainty. So again, these conversations and this work that we do together is like, well, cool. Like what? What strengths are we bringing into the situation? We're not the same and we have different strengths. No, exactly. And that's again where the teamwork comes in.
Yeah. And this is a process that has has ebbed and flowed and changed and morphed through these conversations and not through really gentle, always communicating. The moment something comes up. It's like I got so stressed about these finance, like the savings that finally I was like, I'm so overwhelmed by this. And then and then we like realise that. So we shifted and we just have realised your need for certainty. So we've shifted. So there's like these kinds of things.
You have to have grace because you will naturally fall into a pattern and that is OK and normal. And having grace for yourself to be like, what isn't working, this isn't working. And communicating it, having grace for your relationship that you can change is really important because then you can change and put a new more spoken contract in place that works better for you. So that's another one. Then there's this one also, every one of them, I'm like, yes, yes.
And this is only like a list that there's so many more, but one person that has to be the calm and in control one and one person that's allowed to be more expressive or or more overwhelmed or less in control. And that can be a pattern that you fall into as well. And we've fallen into this a little bit because I from my family of origin, I also felt like is self inflicted, but that I had to be the manager of
people's emotions. And so coming into our relationship, I've carried that into it, but I feel like I have to be the manager of everyone's emotions and your emotions. So when you were overwhelmed and stressed, I, it wasn't just, oh, my husband's overwhelmed and stressed. It was like, I need to now manage that and overcompensate and take ownership of it and make it OK and all these things that are not healthy for any of us. And that was the unspoken contract that we fell into.
And now we've got a real intentionality from on multiple layers, but I've also got a, a personal intentionality to not own when you're overwhelmed. Like it's not my thing to fix for you. I'm here to support you, but I don't need to make it fine for you. And you also, we've also been having that conversation back and forth a little bit about about our overwhelmed levels and
that kind of thing as well. And I've had to take that responsibility of knowing that what what you bring to the table and my reactions and what that what that causes for you. So it's also then reinforced my need for my intentionality, for my own self care and you know, recognising patterns and then putting things in place to break those habits and patterns. And that's a good point because I bring a more complicated system to the table in it then potentially I would have had I
had a different upbringing. So you could have been with somebody that didn't have my experience. And then you're working out how you regulate your own emotions and that kind of thing in a totally different way. But you being aware of how I, what kind of like triggers and that kind of thing I navigate is also a really important part of it. And it has been how you've gone about it, which has been really helpful.
So you're not just working out how you've naturally fallen into it. You're also being aware of my partner has this experience and This is why this is a thing for them and you've got that grace and flexibility to explore that together and I think that's really important. And it is, it does make it more difficult because there's another layer to that, right? So it's not just you navigating your own circumstances in your own situations.
You do think of, you know, your, I think of you, right? And I think of the kids. And there's this other layer of like, all right, well, it's no longer just me sorting out my stuff. It's like, all right, well, how is my stuff now impacting others? Because I need to also sort it in a way that it benefits them too. So for example, well, like a way that I would love to be able to deal with my overwhelm, this is shot myself in my room for like, you know. Yeah, yeah. He can't just do that.
And it's and as well, it's not just a matter of like what I want to do. It's also that other level of like, how am I modelling this to my kids too? Yeah. And it's like, well, I don't want them to see that I just shot myself in my room for an hour because I'm overwhelmed. I want them to see me put into healthy habits, but the healthy habits aren't always easy habits. So yeah, it's just that it's just that balance and that level. So the layers of it, yeah, it's like an onion.
And another and last example is the kid manager or the work stress carrier balance. And that's a really common one. Again, very similar to the mental load conversation we've spoken about emotional load conversation we spoke about as well and, and, and natural outworking a lot of the time of your situation in new context and how you've been raised. So someone might manage the kids day to day needs more.
And then the other person probably focuses more on the external work, balancing of that stress and all those dynamics that come into play. And you're not going to have what maybe, maybe you will, but most people aren't going to get an equal balanced, absolutely everyone on the same team doing the same amount of stuff for each of these things. So none of these examples are to be like bad person, good person, bad person, good person. All of these examples are to
help you start to like explore. Oh yeah. These are the systems that we've got working for us. These are the unspoken contracts that we've fallen into without even realising, so that then you can identify how well they're working for you. So we're going to dive back into unspoken contracts in a bin. As I mentioned before though, and I do want to talk about this because it's been such a powerful tool for me and I know for many other women, which has
been utterly amazing. I say other women, I'm not a woman, but you only do these sessions for women. So anyway, that's fine, I can. Where and all the other women. Yeah, me and all the other women. Amy does coaching. OK, So what is coaching, you ask? And we've had this question a lot. So go check out episode 48 and you'll see an example of Amy running me through one of her sessions. It was just a really, really
impactful session. And for me, I really enjoyed it and I got a lot from it. And we keep referencing back to that episode because it was so impactful and so identifying things we just don't really identify on our own. So go check that out. It's really impactful. Amy does one on one coaching. She also so those group coaching as well. So if you want more information about these sessions, go to her website andnextchaptercoaching.com dot AU.
Also, you can reach out to us via our own website podcast website honeymoon to chat.com dot AU no honeymoon. At chat.com. Honeymoon to chat.com. We'll move the AU. We are going to get this whatever we say. Read the bio. Yeah, it's all in the bio. It's all the info's in there. Highly recommend you check it out guys. I know I'm very, very biassed, but again, I actually have experienced this first hand. It's very impactful, very powerful, and you've been so natural at this.
You did this sort of stuff before, you even did training to become a coach, and it's just been so cool that you now have a label to put on it and you, you the impact's happening and that's awesome. So really, really great stuff. Yeah. And there are free resources on my website and on our podcast website as well that if if you are not a woman that wants to do group or one on one coaching, these resources are valuable, valuable and helpful to anybody.
So you're more than welcome to check those out, see if anything resonates and what might be impactful there. Yeah, absolutely. That's great. Let's get back into unspoken contracts. Yes, let's and I want to, before we dive into the next part, I really want to make an important note before we keep, you know, when we're listening and you start to just build a story about how it applies to you. Before we keep reinforcing that
story. I just want to shake up your perspective a little bit and you might be the one listening and thinking I carry all of these loads or I carry these things. My partner's got no idea what's going on there. My partner's got no idea about how much I carry these things. And they just are in default passenger mode. And that may be true. I'm not trying to say that's not true. But what I do want to point out is you function in an unspoken contract.
There will be unspoken contracts that you are functioning in default without even recognising. So it's important that we're keeping our mind open while we're listening to this, to what we might be doing default and what we might be the passenger in and what might be frustrating our partner, what might be something that they see and they're like, they'd have no idea. And I guarantee you that every one of us is working out of a default contract that we aren't aware of.
So just have that little moment of opening to listening where you might be challenged yourself as well. We've had this happen and we've said this on the podcast before when we've had disagreements and things come out from your perspective that I'm like, what are you talking about? I think that about you. And it's like, and it's not how we go about it, but that's kind of like the thought. It is kind of like what? But that it's been so telling because we only see through our lens.
And yes, that's valid. And this conversation is valid for people that need to communicate something that's upsetting them, but it's also really, really valid that you're not just like my partner's got no idea. And even if they are the default or passenger type player in this contract of yours, there could be emotional and mental and frustration based things going on for them in that role.
Like we talked about the intimacy thing to Blair, it looked like I wasn't initiating and that would probably very easily look like I just didn't put the effort in or I didn't really care or he was unwanted. And to me, it was a story going on where I had felt rejected. So I wasn't initiating because I didn't feel wanted. I wasn't initiating because I didn't feel like I had ownership over that space.
I wasn't initiating because I didn't feel like an independent adult, like an independent adult with influence in this space. So there's a lot that goes into these things. It's not as simple as I initiate and she doesn't, I initiate and she's lazy. Like that's not, it's not as
simple as that. And I just want us to be really aware of that as we go into and how it might be breaking down and how we can practically work on them because we all need to be challenging ourselves and reflecting personally. So how you might know one of these contracts is breaking down and this is usually where you'll start to recognise you even have the contract in the 1st place. You might find yourself with built up resentment of frustration and it could be over
the same things. It could be over everything. You could be finding yourself frustrated at every little thing that your partner does, or it could be repetitive, like he is always on his phone and not helping me or she is never doing anything outside, like everything heavy lifting or something I'm in having to do. Like they're whatever it is. You've got a recurring story, reoccurring frustration, built
up frustration. You might be finding that playing out really closely ties into our scorekeeping episode as well. You might find a sense of being trapped in a role that you didn't sign up for, frustrated in a role that you didn't want and just be like, how did I get here? And you don't even know. And that also really, really plays into the mental load conversation that we've had, emotional load, mental load
conversation. You find yourselves carrying all of this stuff that you're like, hang on a second. How did I carry all of this stuff all of a sudden? And a really interesting way of this playing out is when you're a mom and a, when your parents, a lot of moms express how trapped we feel in terms of being able to just go out. So a dad generally speaking, will be like, oh, I'm going to go do this thing on this time. They walk out the door and they
go do that thing on that time. And mom tends to generally speaking, when there's an imbalance here, be like, I need to go do that thing. So I'm going to make sure everyone's sorted. I'm going to make sure I've stepped my partner all the way through everything he's going to have to do while I'm gone. I'm going to make sure that the kids are OK. I'm going to make sure that I'm back in time. Like there's all these other
things. It's not just I'm walking out the door to go do this thing I need to do. And that's, that's one way. You might be seeing this trapped feeling playing out. You might find yourself having recurring arguments about fairness, like something doesn't feel fair. Who does more again, the scorekeeping, arguing about what's expected or mismatched expectations. You might find one person is pulling back from a task all of a sudden, like they're just like, no, I'm not doing that anymore.
And this can be an interesting one to play out because you might realise you might be like, hang on, why do I, why do I always have to get the groceries? I'm not going to do the groceries anymore. Then it might be like a kind of frustrated reaction.
And it can feel satisfying because you're like, no, this is a system that's not serving me. But then for the other person to have all of a sudden their partner pulling out of an unspoken contract that we've, you've now built your relationship to function in these rhythms. And then this person just like pulls out of it without even
communicating. If you don't have that conversation and that understanding of the system they've just decided isn't working for them anymore, that's really lurching and like really disorienting as well and can look like quite an aggressive move or can look like, you know, that kind of resentment, stonewalling, whatever process playing out as well so that the conversation needs to come with that. You might feel invisible,
underappreciated or exhausted. You might feel like you're on opposite teams, like you're we've talked about being roommates before as well. And here you might just feel like you're not connecting. You're on opposite teams, you're not even really like interacting because of these systems that you're just playing out all the time. And you might feel a feeling of staleness or lack of intimacy again with the roommate type vibe or just be like, I don't
really know. Like I see people all the time on forums saying I don't think I love my partner anymore. And it's not because of any big thing, It's just that they've realised I don't really love my partner anymore, which is a whole conversation in and of itself. But I think that staleness happens because you're not something's not functioning well. There's something that's not fulfilling you and there's a system playing out that isn't working well.
So these are just some of the signs that a system might not be working. Well, one of these unspoken contracts is out of place. So you might start to notice that one of these unspoken contracts isn't working for you. Or you need to start like really assessing me, like, what is this at play? That's just not, it's feeling rough. That engine light is on, the car is making a weird noise. Maybe it just stops. So let's figure out how we can bring these things back into a
constructive way. So firstly, and as we always say, start with curiosity. What is happening? Where did this start? You might then have a framework for, oh, I think I'm frustrated because I always do dinners or I always have to keep our menu cool. Have curiosity with your partner in that conversation as well. Then how has this happened? Where did it start? Do you, does it feel fair? Can we assess things?
A curious, gentle mindset when you're approaching these things is really helpful because these are defaults. They're things you've built together, even if it feels like
it's unfair at that time. So it's really important that you're open to that conversation, identifying how it was made or started us having these conversations about like the overwhelm one, for example, if I was just like I, I get really overwhelmed when you're overwhelmed and I didn't explain it's because I, I have had this experience in my childhood that now I've brought into our family, then it wouldn't it's, it lacks the clarity around it. And that's been really critical.
And we bring this up quite a lot is having that attitude of curiosity. So it's like, all right, I've struggled with this thing. I'm overwhelmed. And it's not the answer now is it's like, oh, Blair just gets overwhelmed. Like then we leave it there. So we can't do that thing because Blair's now overwhelmed. It's like, well, no, I now need to go through this self reflection part of like, well, and when we do this together a lot, it's not even just solo, but it's just like, well, why am
I getting overwhelmed? And then what, you know, what's triggering that or, and then what do I do about that? And just exploring that a lot more is being really, really important to do. Yeah, it's so easy. It is so easy just to be like, well, I'm overwhelmed. And yeah, when you're overwhelmed, you don't want to have to deal with it. So. But it's always important to go back.
Afterwards, you don't have to force your brain and your brain when it's in survival mode or frustration mode or whatever, it's not going to think very well in that curious curiosity way or the big picture kind of clear way. So it's OK to wait and come back to that. But yeah, being like, why do I keep finding this pattern playing out for me? Where am I to have started?
I'm just stripping it back and back and back until you can find the core part of where it may may have come in, in the 1st place. Also being like, have we actually agreed on this or is it something that we just fell into? Because we have had conversations at the beginning of our marriage that we did agree on and we've then had conversations where we're like, that's not working anymore. Let's do it this way. We've also had systems that we didn't ever agree on.
It wasn't like a conversation we had and we decided intentionally and same things happen. It's not working for us anymore. Let's figure out what's going on. So this is a little like questionnaire you can kind of ask yourself to try and figure out what system might be broken, what might be going on for yourself. What is feeling awful frustrating me right now in this relationship? Is something feeling not right?
Is there a role or task I used to feel OK with but now I feel resentment or exhaustion around it? What's something I wish my partner would help with or take over? But I've never really said it out loud. And I would add to this as well, when you haven't said it out loud what it means to you. So it might be like in the moment, you might be like, can you please do this thing? Can you please take the rubber shot? Can you please take the rubber shot? Can you please take the rubber
shot? And you find yourself repeating that expressing when you, when I have to keep reminding you to take the rubbish out. I feel like I'm being your mom or I feel like I'm having to carry your task for you and my task for me. And I've got so many tasks and that's overwhelming. That's a different conversation than can you please take the rubbish out? Can you please, please take the rubbish out, please.
Like it's you're not owning their lack of ownership, but you're adding clarity to why, how it's impacting you and why it's so important to you. And even asking the question too, I find this with someone like with work, right? If I have to ask someone like, why isn't something get getting done? It's not just a matter. I don't just leave it there. It's like, all right, cool. But what, what's going to change? How's this going to change? Because I can't, I can't own
your stuff. Like you need to own your stuff. And So what will change? And so, but sometimes I input, a lot of times I input into that, that discussion and that journey and that's that. Again, that's teamwork. But then they they earn the responsibility of implementing that change. Yeah. Yeah, and that helps identify if there's something not working along the way. Are there things I have stopped doing because I felt unseen or it felt unfair?
But we've never discussed it. So those are just some ways you can be like what's broken? Where is it broken and how can we have that conversation? So then once you've identified those things, just be proactive, be pre planning. Like when this comes up again, I get really overwhelmed. When I have to manage the savings, I get really overwhelmed. So I just, I, my brain just shuts down. You don't get overwhelmed.
What if you manage your savings, but you get overwhelmed if you have to constantly be on top of our emails and figure out what bills have come in. And that's fine for me. If you've got the money, I've got the bills, that's fine. So it's a proactive pre planning of what works with your skills and your time and your capacity and what will make this an easier process for you down the track. And when you need to actually like work on your own stuff
rather than just like as a team. So for example, you know, in some areas I, I remember I've brought, I've said to you a few times, like I want to, I don't want to sit down because if I sit down, I'm, I'm sat down, but like, I'm already up and I'm active and I know when I'm, I'm moving around, I'm going to get more done in this time. And I know if I sit down, I'm going to just as it goes be a struggle for me to get up. So working working around those strengths and identifying those
times as well. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you can even start with a gentle observation too, and be like, I find that I'm getting really overwhelmed with our savings. Like I'm, I'm finding that really overwhelming. Can we address this later so that you've voiced it? You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to have a big script all worked out. You've voiced it. We need to address this. I'm getting overwhelmed. And then you're both able to be like, OK, let's address this
down the track. Name the contract. So it seems like I've always done the finances and that's OK, but I'm feeling burnt out with it. So what would make it better for both of us? What's a way that we can kind of share a little bit of that load and both be across the things that are important for us to both be across? And I think that's important to
address as well, right? So sometimes we can approach these conversations be like, right, I'm struggling with this, do something about it. And now that thing is just putting that on the other person and like, I know how that would make me feel. I'll be like, well, I don't know. I haven't been a part of the process to know what I can do. Like so now do I do it all? But what if I get overwhelmed while you've shared that you've overwhelmed. So I'm just going to do it.
I think what's really important is having that conversation again, curiosity, but also working through and coming out with that. What is overwhelming about it? You know what, what, what can I do? And how can we do this together rather than yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because I could have been like, I can't deal with finances. You take it all. But that's not how it ended up being. It's like, I'll keep this part. That one part stresses me out so much. You take that if you can't
figure this out. One of the really kind of fun ways and something that's kind of been thrust upon us. We haven't really done this intentionally on purpose. It's just happened to us is trying an experiment of swapping roles for a short time. So even for a week being like for a week you do the groceries and see if that is any better. Not in like a you do it, but just like just challenging yourselves. And we've had that where we've
had to swap roles, yeah. One of the huge, one of the most impactful times, I think was when we moved out of Melbourne during COVID and you were working and I was a stay at home dad. That was such an eye opener of changing those roles and and a whole other level of appreciation. But understanding, right? And then we just were able to address different things because like, now I get it or now I see or whatever else because we experienced it and that as well equipped us with conversations.
So many. Yeah, so much more conversations because of the experience. Yeah, so many more that we started a podcast. Wow. Yeah. And groceries is a good example too. We had this conversation about groceries when we first started exploring mental load. Yeah. And then you now do groceries like 90% of the time and we've swapped and and we're both much more aware of how it works out now.
Yeah, and even even to a point now we're trying to get our kids to help us put the shopping lists together. We want to teach them like about mental load and stuff like that too. But. Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of ways you can practically step through. Yeah. I think the core of all of it is gentleness and curiosity. These systems aren't bad, they're not horrible systems. They've been serving a purpose for you.
There's a reason that they happened as default and sometimes they just don't work anymore. So recognising where you need some assistance, recognising how you can bring that conversation up and also being aware and mindful of the fact that it's a layered and dynamic situation. It's not just your perspective is right and their perspective
is wrong. Once you can start to identify what systems are at play, you can also then look under that bonnet of your car and be like, the radiator's not working because the water didn't get put in. Cool, cool in Yeah. You can put water in too. And I get it, Lee. There's two things. Yeah, we know how much you know about the radiator. And cool water is another option, right? Whatever, It's such a boring conversation that I I can't even this the car system's obviously not mine.
All right, we're going to walk into the reality check corner. It's walk it. Walk it. So we're just going to bring these things we've spoken about, make them applicable in short, quick, easy ways right now. They can apply to your day, to your life, to your week, this this week. And you can implement them and challenge yourself to start adjusting some of these ways that they're working out for you. So I just want us to pause for a second and reflect.
Is there a place in your relationship where you have felt stuck or tense lately? Have you felt an increase of pent up frustration and in a certain area of your life? And can you name the unspoken contract that might be playing out behind that? And a little quick challenge for you is what is one small shift that you could suggest this week to bring more clarity or balance to one of these unspoken
contracts? So something like, I realise as I've been taking on this thing, taking on this thing, and I'd love to talk about a way we can do it in a better way that serves us better. Or I feel more secure when we check in about plans instead of just assuming we're going to go with what you've planned. Or I'm really overwhelmed by having our bank savings in my account.
Can I put them in your account? And then just a quick future pace to borrow from the direction we want to go, borrow from this future that we'd love to work towards. Imagine a few weeks from now, you've named a contract, you've talked about it and found a way to share the load better. It isn't perfect, but it's starting to feel more balanced and it's starting to function better.
It feels more fair and more connected, and just imagine what that would feel like and let that move us forward towards that. Thank you for joining us today for Unspoken Contracts, one of those universal dynamics that play out. The systems are not the enemy. They're not bad. You're the enemy. No, I'm joking. They're not unusual, it's not weird, they're not bad, but they can play up and there can be clunky radiators not working. And sorry to all the car people.
I'm not a massive car person, just to be clear. I just was trying to make a point, don't you? What? It wasn't like cooling is better for your radiator than water. I just wanted to make that. Point yeah, you're more of a car person than I am so. All right. Thanks guys. Guys good chat. See ya.