Love Or Respect – Which Is More Important In A Relationship? Why?

Since a relationship is always a work-in progress kind of thing, boundaries need to be worked on time to time. What does that say about respect and love – which is more important?

We usually come across a lot of jokes on married couples where women are always the butt of joke. Men usually enjoy such jokes but the lines get crossed when you publicly joke about your partner in front of a group of friends or relatives.

The one cracking the joke might find it amusing, but the other one might feel disrespected and humiliated. The other one might not publicly show their annoyance, but might definitely feel offended and disrespected.

Well there certainly need to be some boundaries which shouldn’t be crossed. If your spouse doesn’t like you publicly pointing them out for certain things, for eg. table manners, you need to respect it and avoid doing it. If you keep on repeating it, they might feel disrespected.

Relationships need work, from both sides

Since a relationship is always a work-in progress kind of thing, these boundaries need to be worked on time to time.

They say for any relationship to work, love is the most important thing. I would like to slightly modify this statement. No doubt love is a crucial factor for a relationship to sustain, but respect is an equally important thing. You feel loved when you feel respected. Both go hand in hand.

But this doesn’t mean that one should not criticize or express dissatisfaction. Of course you need to do if you want things to work. But instead of doing it publicly and making the other person feeling humiliated, you could discuss it privately expressing what you dislike. Communication is the key. The more you communicate in a positive manner, the more things will run smoothly.

The idea of respect in a relationship

The idea of respect differs from person to person. For instance, one may not like to share the password for emails, phone and social media accounts because they like privacy but if their partner is of the belief that “what’s yours is mine” theory then things might take an ugly turn. The one who does not like to share passwords might be accused of being highly secretive, after all if there is nothing to hide then why not share the passwords? The  other partner might feel disrespected as they both have different perspective for same thing.

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If you feel respected, you will feel loved. Respect is as important as love to have a long lasting relationship. If you respect each other, that love will never fade away.

Image source: a still from the film Thappad

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