Jan and John have been married for three years. The first two years were the passionate years. They were extremely enjoying each others company in the nicest possible ways. They were so happy doing things that they both loved that there was no need to discuss the world around them. Being professionals in their mid-30s they were upwardly mobile. Money was not a problem. There was no need to even discuss household budgeting. They were so preoccupied with their mutual enjoyment and work that they didn’t cook. They either ate out or had takeaway food delivered. They thought life was great. It also meant they didn’t even have to shop for food. Therefore during those wonderful years they didn’t even have time to discuss a shopping list.
After two years of this blissful existence, they both noticed that there were points of friction. Their ardor had cooled and they started having arguments. After some months, being qualified professionals, a solution occurred to them. The husband would focus on the major issues that perplexed the couple (for example, how the Greek crisis will be resolved, what steps the USA need to take to deal with its massive debt, the steps that need to be taken so that China recovers from its slowdown, how the Australian minority Government would survive, how does Mitt Romney finds a suitable running mate etc.) and the wife will deal with the minor matters (for example, how much to spend on clothes, perfumes, shoes, groceries, which sofa to buy and which type of carpet would be best in the lounge room and so on).
This brilliant division of labor proved not to be without its difficulties. Demarcation issues slowly emerged when it came to deciding what was major and what was minor. It was unclear if whether the couple should have children was a major issue or minor issue. Was buying a car a major issue? Jan argued that it was a simple decision that could be made on color and seating capacity. John, on the other hand had developed a spreadsheet that took into account 13 parameters, including engine size, resale value and fuel economy. It was not long before the time spent on resolving these demarcation issues ate into their mutual enjoyment time. It finally dawned on them that they would need a mediator to settle some of the issues. Mediator was used for some issues but mediation was very expensive. Peace was restored when it occurred to John and Jan that they should just continue their disagreements and sell their story to a reality TV show in which they would be the stars.
