"Some of the best marriage advice I have ever received came while I was working as a nurses' assistant in an old folks' home when I was around 19.

This one elderly widower took me by the hand at breakfast and told me very sternly 'Don't ever speak poorly of your husband. Not to your coworkers, not to your friends, and never to your mother.'

My relationship immediately improved. When the people you love aren't all dogpiling on your latest gripe about your significant other those gripes seem less significant. Petty even. And then, suddenly, forgotten.

So just in case no one else has told you: Don't talk bad about your husband."