You're listening to 3 in 30 takeaways from moms episode 153.

How to actually hear your spouse.

Welcome to 3 in 30, a podcast for moms who want to create more meaning in motherhood.

Each 30-minute episode will feature three doable takeaways for you to try at home with your family this week.

I'm your host Rachel Nielsen.

Thank you so much for being here.

When my husband Ryan and I first got married, I had no idea how difficult it would be to just talk to each other sometimes.

When we were dating, I could pour my heart out to him with ease.

But almost 15 years of marriage later, at the end of long days with working kids, a lot of times we are just tired.

Sometimes during the day, I am literally counting down the minutes to when I can talk to Ryan about a decision I have to make or a struggle I'm facing.

But by the time our kids are in bed and we have the chance to connect, it just feels too hard to verbalize everything that's on my mind or to give him all of the background on a decision I have to make for my business.

And so I just don't try.

Sometimes there's just so much resistance to even getting a dialogue started.

That's why I've been so intrigued and amazed by a couple whose podcasts I started listening to several months ago.

Glen and I met Henry from the How Married Are You podcast.

In their biweekly episodes, they talk so openly with each other about their hearts and their struggles, their conflicts with each other, and the ways that they're growing and changing as they raise their young family while building their amazing company belief in fatherhood.

I know you're going to love hearing their tips for how to actually hear and understand your partner.

But before we jump into that conversation, I just want to remind you about this month's sponsor Infancy, a nonprofit program of Optometry Cares, the AOA Foundation.

This amazing organization provides comprehensive infant eye exams for babies ages six to 12 months, absolutely free.

This week on Instagram, I shared about the program and one mother commented and shared an amazing story and I asked her if I could share it here.

She agreed and this is what she said.

My nephew was eight months old when my sister heard about the Infancy program and took him to the optometrist.

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