Would you sign a relationship contract?

00:00 04:04

Natasha Feroze has narrated this article for you to listen to.

What makes a relationship work? I look at the happiest, most stable couples I know and wonder what the trick is. Did they spot problems early on and talk them through? Do they simply accept each other’s flaws? We all have foibles; a relationship is simply a matter of deciding which ones we can live with.

I came across a couple recently who had their own approach: a relationship contract. Americans Simone and Malcolm Collins are big names in the pro-natalist movement. They have made it their mission to convince people to take relationships more seriously, ideally with a view to having children. They are now married, but prior to doing so, they had in place their own contract. It comprised a long list of questions – more than 62 – about what kind of behaviour they were willing to tolerate.