You Married Them for Better or Worse - But Not for That Weird Noise They Make When They Eat.

Every marriage has its petty hills. The weird noise your partner makes while eating, the way they breathe too loudly during movies, the socks they leave balled up like grenades around the house. These aren’t deal-breakers. They’re the fine print.

Psychologically, this is called habituation. The longer you’re around a stimulus, the more your brain notices it. At the start, quirks are cute. Ten years in, they’re amplified into irritants. It’s not that your spouse has gotten worse. It’s that your brain has stopped filtering them out.

But here’s the reframe: irritation is a side effect of intimacy. You don’t hear the chewing of strangers because you don’t share a life with them. You hear your partner because they’re woven into your daily fabric. The same closeness that makes their habits unbearable is the same closeness that makes them home.

So no, you didn’t sign up for that specific noise. But you did sign up for the whole person, quirks included. Love isn’t blind. It’s just learning to laugh at the parts that drive you nuts.