Dated a year before marriage.

The good is what I expected ( kind hearted person in general and good dad), and the bad is worse than I expected( horrible hiriible communicator, absolutely horrible).

We’ve known each other since age 18 (freshman year of college), dated on and off since age 19 but in a serious committed relationship since age 22, lived together since age 24, married at age 28, were now 40 w 2 kids. No surprises but our relationship has only gotten better over the years and we have a better style of communication now—virtually no arguments/fights anymore whereas we used to argue a good bit. The only difficult thing about our relationship is that our families (our parents and siblings) have more and more challenges that we’ve had to deal w and get involved in way more than we would’ve ever predicted.