It's a Boy!

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a boy! Congratulations to the new parents.   Even though they have every advantage and endless resources, they're just like new parents everywhere.  Children are overwhelming.  They want their parents' attention constantly.  They sleep when their adults are awake and are awake when their adults want to sleep.  Everything revolves around them.  Everything.  When children are young, it's hard for their parents to maintain, let alone improve, their relationship.  They're too tired for dinner out, for conversation, for sex.  They're tired.  They forget what brought them together in the first place.  They begin to define themselves in terms of their roles, at work and in the family.  The couple part of them gets lost.  For the successful couples, that part is just taking a little vacation.  Once the munchkin is able to be a little bit more predictable and a little less needy (and they get a little more sleep), they are able to reconnect as a couple and navigate both roles.  For others, the  "couple" took a hike and never came back.  These are the people we see here in the Trenches.  These couples forget what brought them together in the first place.  They see only the here and now, and forget their past and can't envision the future.  Because they can't remember what it was like before children, they aren't willing to put in the effort to reinvent their relationship as a couple.  Then, if something goes wrong with the children, or they simply grow up and leave home, there's nothing left.   That's when they come to see us - Here in the Trenches.