However, this does not apply to today’s power couple!

Everyone is aware of the tremendous amount of effort needed to maintain a happy and healthy partnership; at the end of the day, sharing your life with another person is not an easy task. However, Kate and Jordan Bullard are amongst those who make it work even when life becomes hectic. 

The thing is, Kate has recently been drowning in housework due to rather unpleasant life surprises in the form of a husband with a broken arm and a poor pup who was hospitalized after a seizure – and as such, she completely disregarded her own needs.

But luckily for her, Jordan was quick to catch on and come up with a way to influence his beloved wife into taking care of herself too.

You know what they say: “A great marriage isn’t something that just happens; it’s something that must be created”

“My husband noticed I haven’t been taking care of myself lately, so he’s now matching me on self-care tasks. And what a thing it is to be loved like this” – this internet user turned to one of Reddit’s communities dedicated to getting personal things off your chest, to give fellow members a glimpse of what a true marriage should look like. The post managed to garner 2.4K upvotes as well as 71 comments containing some pretty wholesome remarks. 

Husband matches wife on self-care tasks after noticing that she couldn’t find time to do them herself

Kate (26) and Jordan (29) who are from Lafayette, Indiana, but currently live in Pensacola, Florida, have recently been going through a hard time – however, this is a happy-ending kind of tale!

The woman took online to share a “mushy” story of how her husband managed to bring her back on track. The thing is, the past month has been a total mess: the couple’s dog was hospitalized after a 20-minute-long seizure, a pipe burst in their wall and flooded their home, and Jordan broke his arm and found out that he needed surgery. Kate was essentially the only person in charge of the household, and somewhere between juggling prescriptions, making appointments, and replacing furniture, she forgot about herself.

It wasn’t something that she noticed, and when she told Jordan about her headache which was later discovered to be provoked by her not eating anything and not drinking water, Jordan decided to take things into his own hands. The man told his partner that he’d be only drinking water if she did, and so on. And being the giving person that Kate is, she started drinking several glasses a day, just to make sure that Jordan did as well, thereby solving the initial issue of forgetting to take care of herself too.

The past month has been filled with rather unpleasant surprises that made Kate the only person in charge of the household

Bored Panda was lucky enough to get through to Kate and ask her a couple of questions. “What inspired me to make the post is it was such an intimate thing to hear and experience. When I think of love, I tend to think of the big gestures of flowers, and date nights, and these big effort things. And those big things are amazing to experience in their own right. But there’s something different about the whole feeling of love when it’s not ideal. When it isn’t candles and romance, and instead it’s real life and it’s messy and you’re feeling gross and tired and your partner serves you this pact that forces you to put yourself first. And I wanted to post it as a reminder of that. That love can be the big things, absolutely. But oftentimes I find it is the little things between the lines that will really hit you, if you take the time to appreciate them,” the woman said when we pondered about the inspiration behind the post.

Her husband, Jordan, eventually picked up on the fact that his beloved partner had started to forget to take care of herself too

We then asked Kate to tell us more about her relationship with her husband: “My husband and I have been together for almost 9 years. We dated for 7 years, and have been married for 2.5. But we met as coworkers at Target! It’s so funny – I was a cashier and he was a cart attendant. I was actually in a no-dating agreement with my close group of friends when I saw him on my first day. I remember literally running to the bathroom and texting them that the agreement was off because I had just found my person. And I remember they thought I was crazy because I hadn’t even talked to him yet. But a few hours later he wandered up to my aisle and we started chatting, and every day after that he would come through my line, buy a single candy bar, and give it to me just because he wanted an excuse to talk to me. We started dating shortly after, and have been peas in a pod ever since! In the years that followed, we ended up moving in together and then packing what belongings we could in our car (we sold the rest) and moved across the country. We have two rescue dogs that we took on a road trip from Florida to California, and we hope to do more road trips with them soon. We actually still work together, too, but not at Target!”

He then had an idea and began to emulate Kate’s self-care practices in an effort to help her remember to do the same for herself

Last but not least, BP wondered what, in Kate’s opinion, the core components of a healthy relationship are, to which she said: “There’s so much that goes into a healthy relationship, but I think we really prioritize friendship and appreciation. My husband is my best friend before all. We are constantly making inside jokes and pulling pranks on each other. It keeps things fun! But appreciation is a huge one. Just acknowledging, you know, *hey, I saw you did the dishes today- thanks!* It goes a long way. Over time, it’s built this relationship that we regularly go out of our way to do kind things for each other, just because we know the other will appreciate it. For example, it’s not unusual for him to come home to his favorite beer in the fridge, or for me to come home to freshly cleaned and folded pajamas. We do it because we know we will see that and appreciate it.”

“I think when people hear about our relationship, they think it’s perfect. But it’s not. No relationship is, and no relationship is supposed to be. It’s all about how you treat each other during the downs. If you practice respect, you will never take any steps you can’t come back stronger from.”

Fellow online community members shared their thoughts and opinions