Sometimes talking about certain issues with your partner can be easy. Like, “when and where should we go on vacation?”or “what kind of ice cream should we get at the grocery?” Maybe even, negotiating whose family you will spend the holidays with could be easy. But the real problem happens when you don’t know how to talk about marriage problems without creating more conflict.

This can feel scary, especially if your (and/or your partner’s) communication skills haven’t been so great in the past, or you are newly married and haven’t had much experience with difficult conversations.

Or, one of the bigger reasons why it can be hard to talk about problems is if one or both of you grew up in a house that didn’t promote discussing any problems.