Q&A Forum - August/September 2018

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As you can imagine, this habit does not necessarily sit well with my wife, and she employs both subtle and some not so subtle psychological and other means to encourage me to see things her way. For example, if I insist on a particular course of action with which she disagrees, I may receive the "silent treatment" until I relent. But when I do relent, she is magnanimous in acknowledging that I have corrected the error of my ways and congratulates me on my wisdom and generally rewards me with a complete and immediate change in her behavior towards me. I have noticed her employment of this tactic more and more lately, and I actually find myself becoming conditioned to either relent in my prior decision or even to adopt her "recommendation" from the start. Interestingly, I have also noticed her efforts to gain ascendance in those areas I always considered to be my "department".

Consequently, I have two questions:

1) Given the above situation would you advise me to relax or even relinquish what I perceive as my decision making authority/habit in the unassigned departments as I have described? Should I also do the same for my traditional departments where we have a difference of opinion?