OK, while were on the topic of being "equipped for a relationship" I guess I can share another couple of things in our EDMK (every day marriage kit), we've sen a lot of couples come and go since we got married in 1996, so at this point, I only feel qualified to talk to the unmarried.

In no particular order....

My wife asks me, "Do you want to have dinner at my Mother's house?" and I often reply, "I don't care."

And that answer makes my wife very, very happy.

Why?

For me, "I don't care" means exactly, literally and without retroactive equivocation, "I don't care." It does not mean, "I think you want me to go, but I don't really want to, so I'll say I don't care, so I don't have to say no, but I hope you'll say you don't really want to go."

It means that given a choice of dinner at moms or sitting on the couch, either of these choices will leave me in the same basic mental state. And my wife knows that if I DO care, I'll say it:

Her: "Do you want to have dinner at my Mother's house?"
Me: "No, I'd rather stay home."
Her: "OK, well I'm heading over with the kids, I'll tell them you were beat from work."
Me: "Thanks."

And that's it. It's about not mindreading everything and simply accepting.