33 Promises Every Relationship Deserves

1. To not tell your friends everything they tell you.

2. To accept compliments, and not suspect an ulterior motive every time they say something nice.

3. To buy their favorite flavor ice cream when you see it at the grocery store, because the biggest parts of love are often that small.

4. To memorize their order at both the coffee shop and Chipotle, because hello.

5. To keep your opinion of their friends to yourself, unless they ask (and even then, to remember that being honest doesn’t mean you can’t be respectful, too.)

6. To buy them clothes not because you think your look better than their current wardrobe, but because you think they’d like them.

7. To always be at least half a drink shy of making them take care of you.

8. To never root against their team just for the sake of antagonizing them.

9. … Unless their team is playing yours, in which you promise not to rub it in too much if you win.

10. To be comfortable enough to kick it in sweats, but feel the relationship is still important enough to know when to dress up and put effort into it.

11. To never badger them about getting engaged.

12. … And generally not see the relationship as just a road to another milestone.

13. To keep excessive #PDA off Instagram.

14. To forgive them when they’re being dumb.

15. To communicate the obvious especially even when it feels obvious, because that unsaid is often where discord grows.

16. To be humble enough to admit when you’re wrong, and big enough to say you’re sorry for it.

17. To accept their mother’s Facebook friend request, and remind them when it’s her birthday.

18. To spend at least two weekend days a month on the couch: no brunch, no errands, no obligations, no nothing. (No pants?)

19. To remember that every fight at Ikea, Target, or during the holidays is not the two of you at your best.

20. To never make them sleep on the couch two nights in a row. (Promise to take the couch on the second night if you’re still angry.)

21. To not stay angry that long.

22. To never make them go on a juice cleanse with you.

23. To be cool with however often they do or don’t want to visit the gym.

24. To never to make them listen to a song you love more than once if they just really don’t like it.

25. To be their judgment-free excuse to watch The Notebook.

26. To trust the first four times they say their phone died.

27. To buy them a battery case when their phone dies the fifth time.

28. To be honest, even when you know you’re being irrational.

29. To always order enough pizza for leftovers tomorrow morning.

30. To be supportive their work endeavors, even if you don’t entirely understand what it is they do for a living.

31. To never dance to your song (you’ll know the one) with anyone else.

32. To remind yourself that you love them, even and especially when annoyance feels like anything but love.

33. And to always remind them that you care, especially in the ways that don’t say it, but show it.