If your marriage has turned into an endurance contest, where each day is stressful and all you can think about is escape, it’s likely time to define just how much you’re willing to do before calling it quits. In other words, define your bottom line for your marriage.
A bottom line is the defining mark between what you will accept and what you absolutely won’t accept from your spouse. Physical violence might be a bottom line. There are some people who live with physical violence in their relationships and others who refuse to sink into that pit.
Cheating might be a bottom line. Any cheating, or perhaps repetitive (“I swear, I’ll never do it again…”) cheating. Once you define your limits, you must communicate them to your spouse.
Bottom lines are no good if they truly aren’t bottom lines. Be prepared to walk if your spouse doesn’t respect your bottom line, or forget about having one. Personal experience is going to define what’s most important to you and that will give you your personal bottom line.
Just as no two people are completely alike, no two bottom lines are necessarily going to be the same. It’s okay. You have a right to set your own limits based upon your personal needs.