by Amelia Bines

Created on: August 07, 2008   Last Updated: August 20, 2008

Before walking down the aisle, my friends and family gave me the typical warnings about entering into a marriage. I heard from my girlfriends, "He'll never remember to put the toilet seat down... get used to a wet hiney in the middle of the night." Other favorites were, "Enjoy your sex life now because it will only last about another year," and "Look at his dad if you want to know what he'll be like ten years from now." Of all the wonderful words of caution I received, no one bothered to mention the work involved in simply living with someone with a completely different personality than you.

To classify myself as a personality type, I am no doubt Type A. I thrive on order, schedules, and work. My dear husband's personality classification is no doubt, Type B. He is the king of laid back, the ruler of procrastination. His two favorite phrases are, "It's okay," and "Don't worry about it."

The first two years of marriage involved many arguments and the birth of our first child. I spent my days making sure our first-born turned out to be the most brilliant child ever created. After playing classical music and looking at flashcards, I would put her down for her scheduled nap and begin frantically cleaning the house. By the time my darling awoke and my love arrived home from work, I had a house that was picture perfect, free from clutter, dirt, and crumbs. My husband would walk into the front door each day, toss his keys on the perfectly de-cluttered counter, and traipse through the house without taking his shoes off. Oh, those shoes. I often joke that if we ever end up divorced, it will be because my husband simply refuses to remove his shoes before walking on my clean floors.

I spent months angry and resentful that my other half did not care about the things that I did. I could not get it through to him why it was important not to have any dirt on the carpet. He simply could not see that his socks did not belong on the bedroom floor. What was wrong with him? Didn't he care about me? If he did care about me, wouldn't he find the same things important that I did? These thoughts are nearly laughable in the present day.

People with different personality types will definitely have their clashes. The more laid-back one will become annoyed with the uptight one's constant demands and rules. The uptight one will fume over the laid back one's seeming lack of self-discipline. Fights will begin over Type B making Type A late for everything and Type A making Type B crazy with

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