I dont know how you guys manage it. I've never been able to stick with someone for more than a few years, or them with me.
Well, its not all roses but having children and then developing a 'family friendly' hobby helps. Also, having enough space for us each to have private space is a must.
In 1988 we bought an old farmhouse on a working farm - six bedrooms, five public, a large outbuilding and a 2-acre 'garden/wood/wildlife sanctuary'. The girls were 8 and 7 at the time.
With us it was horses - the girls got hooked (by a neighbour who started taking them around the fields) and we all got involved. With me it was providing a 'horse tug' and trailer, initially a Series III Landrover that I restored from a wreck then later a 90-series Landcruiser and finally the '100'.
We had animals - rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and endless cats that people dumped at the farm, plus a couple of horses (sometimes on loan and a couple we bought).
When the girls finished University I went back onto motorcycles, I currently have two on the road and four I'm restoring. My wife involves herself with the 'girls' and spends her time child-minding the younger daughter's children. Both have decent jobs, their own houses and their own lives (they are now 38 and 37). The younger one got married ten years ago. We still have two horses at a livery yard that my wife 'organises'.
The elder daughter competes on the horses and I still provide transport, trailer, fuel and finance. Its not easy on a pension but our lives revolve around their interests. I still get away on the bikes occasionally. Wife and I do NOT go on holiday together - that would be fatal !
Its about compromise, balancing one's interests with those of the other and having the space and time to run parallel lives to some extent.
I'm also an easy-going chap
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Bob.