From heading down the aisle to getting married to declaring your love officially as a family couple, there are plenty of services that new lovebirds may encounter often. Although not every couple will work with the same types of services, most couples will find themselves spending time consulting or hiring at least one of the services on the list below. Depending on your season of life or the stage of the relationship, you may find that certain services that we suggest are more applicable than others. Even if something doesn’t apply to your current situation as a couple, that doesn’t mean that you won’t need it in the future, though.
For every family couple, having a community that supports your goals as a dynamic duo is important. Sometimes, that village might involve family and friends. In other cases, you may need to enlist professional support who can help you and your partner navigate life’s challenges such as a broken car windshield or writing a will. As much as you might like to just keep things small between you and your partner, asking for help as a partnership can help you grow closer to each other and become stronger as a couple.
Legacy Planning
While no one wants to consider what it would be like if they passed before their partner or vice versa, every family couple should have a plan in place for how they can provide financial security for their partner after they pass and gift assets to their partner. Some folks may feel that they’re too young or not ready to plan for their estate, but no one can predict when they’ll leave this life unexpectedly so it’s never too early to start looking into legacy options. If you’re not sure what services you would like to have in place when the time comes to plan your will and other important aspects of delegating your estate, you should consult with a local estate planning lawyer first for advice on what to do.
Another option for providing financially for your loved ones and family after you pass is getting a life insurance policy. Once you’ve purchased a life insurance policy, you can add your partner as a beneficiary. You can also split the death benefit between your partner and another entity like a charitable organization that you support so your legacy will continue to live long after you pass away.
When you’re planning your legacy, it’s best to do so when you’re in a good state of mind and health. Even though many people wait until they are on their way out of this world to plan for their family’s next steps, doing this task when you’re younger or healthier can make it easier to clarify your wishes. As things change, you can update important documents to reflect shifting expectations and relationship dynamics as needed.
Auto Services
When you own a car, one of the main services you may encounter as a family couple is an auto repair shop. While car issues are a bummer on a financial level and an emotional one, waiting for car repairs to get done in an auto shop waiting room can feel like less of a chore when you’re doing it with your sweetheart. Depending on the automotive insurance terms of your car coverage policy, you may find that car repairs aren’t as expensive as you might anticipate if they’re the result of a qualifying event like certain car accidents.
Before you bank on your auto insurance policy to pay for car repairs, you should check with a qualified insurance agent at your insurance agency. Most car insurance policies will not cover damage that does not result from a qualifying event. What’s more, every car insurance policy has a limit that even qualifying events and expenses can’t exceed if you want to get reimbursed for claims.
Family Planning
If you would like to expand your two-person family couple into three or more people in a household, you’ll want to consult services that can help you plan your family’s growth safely and effectively. For couples who are not able or interested in conceiving through traditional means, there are many other options to add a bundle of baby joy or an older child to your family. Those who are considering going through surrogacy to grow their family should consider the surrogacy process cost before committing to such a pricey endeavor. While some families may be able to afford surrogacy with ease, others may struggle under the financial burden before they’ve even brought their baby home to their nursery.
As you’re planning your family, you should consider how many children you can afford unless money doesn’t matter to you and your partner. It can also be a good idea to take stock of the “village” you have to support you. Although it’s possible to raise a child without financial or emotional support from people in your life, it can be more difficult to bring a child into a situation where you’ll feel isolated from your community as a result of having a baby.
Home Hunting
Searching for a home isn’t exactly what it looks like on television, but it’s still one of the most exciting things you can do as a family couple. Whether you already lived together in an apartment or you’ve never shared a space with your partner, looking for somewhere to call your home is a rite of passage that most couples relish despite the stressors of it. If you can’t find a home on the market that fits your wants and needs, you can always contact a home construction company to build a home that’s perfect for you. While it’s more expensive to purchase land and a new home, it can be worth it if it means that you won’t have to spend as much money renovating an existing property to your liking.
If you’re not ready to buy a house, there are many houses for rent available that can give you a chance to test whether you and your partner would like to live together. Sometimes, renting can take the pressure off of you as a couple since it means that maintenance and general upkeep of the space are the responsibility of the landlord. When you move to a new city to be with a long-distance partner, renting can also make it easier to move again if you both decide that you would rather find a new city to call home in the future.
Self-Care Services
Taking good care of yourself can help you invest emotionally into the relationship that you have with your partner as a family couple. Some services that provide self-care also provide pampering to couples. Before you book a spa day for yourself at a local med spa, you should see if you can make it a date day with your sweetheart by scheduling some couple services for you both to enjoy.
Even if you’re happily together with your partner as a new couple, you can still take time to yourself to recharge and prepare for a new stage in the relationship. Although it can be sweet to get a massage together as a couple or float together in a float spa, it can be just as enjoyable to do your own thing and report back how much fun you had after you come home to your love. Some couples need more time away from each other to recoup while others might want to spend every waking second with each other, so there’s no right or wrong way to do self-care time as long as it feels right for you.
House Warming
For a family couple that just bought a new house together, throwing a housewarming party can be a fun way to bring your two social circles together for an evening of revelry that christens your new space. In a new relationship, it may take a while for you to feel ready to turn to house warming services of the party-throwing persuasion. Sometimes, delaying events like house-warming parties can allow you to settle into your groove as a couple before you go public with your exciting news.
If you move in together when it’s cold outside, you might need to call housewarming services of a different variety to provide heating oil and warm your home. As much as we’d love to say that all you need to keep your house warm is the heat that you share with your new partner in love, the reality of winter may put a damper on that idea. While it’s not romantic to have a heating company service your home, it’s a necessary part of sharing a place with someone you love or living by yourself.
Relationship Management
Even the most successful new family couple may feel overwhelmed with managing personal problems, relationship dynamics, and the “stuff” that creates conflict in even the healthiest relationships. If you find that you and your partner tend to butt heads on the same issues, it might be time to bring a relationship counselor into the dynamic to diagnose the root of these problems and offer potential ways to solve them without hurting one another. Although many couples wait until they are on the verge of breaking up to call counseling services for couples, intervening early in a relationship can establish healthier ways of handling conflict and communicating that can benefit you as a couple for years to come.
Managing a relationship takes a lot of patience, energy, grace, and emotional regulation. When you’re feeling like you’re not heard in a relationship or you would like to see a change in the relationship but don’t see how to achieve it on your own, a relationship counselor can give you the outside perspective necessary to shift your relationship to a new level. Of course, if you can’t afford to see a relationship counselor, it may be best to try free resources such as online courses made by relationship coaches or books from the library on healthy relationships before you spend money on professional help.
If your relationship is on the rocks, you don’t need to feel ashamed or worry that it’s too soon to reach out for help. Even if you just got together with your partner last week, it’s never too early to protect yourself and your future dynamic by enlisting professional services to help. If you’re worried that the relationship might not be healthy or safe, you may need more specialized assistance through a domestic violence hotline to determine whether relationship counseling would be enough to resolve a problem between you and your partner.
Outdoor Add-ons
From decks to patios, it can be fun to dream up ways to expand your outdoor entertainment space as a family couple. If you’re renting a home, you might not be able to add outdoor areas to the place where you live. Those who own their home will have an easier time adding outdoor structures to their home like a custom patio cover as long as it abides with the guidelines of the municipality and home owner’s association.
Roof Replacements
If you and your partner decide to buy an old home as a family couple, you might need to replace the roof. After 20 – 30 years, most roofs require replacement so you should check with the previous owner to see how long ago the roof was installed. When you need to replace the roof, you shouldn’t do it yourself. Instead, it’s a good idea to rely on professional residential roofers who will know how to safely remove the old roof and install the new one. Although roofers might not be the first services that you think about when you consider who you’ll encounter as a new couple, it makes sense if you recently bought a house that has been around longer than you and your partner have been together romantically.
Being a new couple can make everything feel like an adventure from calling a heating service to going to counseling together. Even if every day isn’t fun by other people’s standards, it can feel magical to build a life with someone who excites you. As you encounter services, remember to approach problems as a united team with your partner.