Episode 3028: Laura and Darrel
Newlywed, Nearly Dead? host Gary Direnfeld shares his thoughts each week and so can you! Let us know what you think. Please note: Gary will not be monitoring these blogs and will not respond to questions.
When these two met, Darrell was a long-haul truck driver and he was on the road most of the time. As soon as they tied the knot, he started to drive locally, they settled down, bought a house, and, boom!, things changed. Needless to say, the little things that irked them both before really started to get on their nerves. Since these two had never been married before nor had either of them ever had what would be described as a normal, loving, full-time relationship, Laura and Darrell were at a loss on how to communicate.
Laura thought that communicating meant nattering and nagging all the time. Darrell refused to communicate: he would only grunt and groan. I thought that it would be a real challenge to get these two to talk but as soon as I showed up, Laura and Darrell opened right up. Their willingness—make that desperation—to change their habits was admirable, but they were still on shaky ground.
One of the challenges I gave Laura and Darrell to improve their communication never made the show, but it helped them immensely. I took Laura and Darrell to a playground jungle gym and blindfolded Laura. With a megaphone in his hand, Darrell had to guide Laura through obstacles and up and down slides. It forced Laura to listen to Darrell and made Darrell speak up. They completed the challenge with flying colours and, in the end, Laura learned to trust and rely on Darrell and Darrell learned that speaking up wasn’t so scary. So, have faith: it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.