In our household we have the saying: “To think, is to not know” (the same meaning as the “assume makes and ass out of u and me“).

With my college degree in mind I know that there were really only ONE thing one learnt (besides a couple of models; “Bell-curve” SWOT-analysis and Boston matrix) during college. And that is to know. What ever you say or state must be a proved fact. You can’t argrue your paper or thesis with a  lot of thinkings or believings. No, straight and proved facts is what you need.

So, when someone in our household says “I thought that you were going to… e.g. pick-up the kids.” The other can always claim that that was not good enough. If you do not know, you find out. In this case maybe through a phone call.

We have found that his is a great way to minimise the type of arguments a couple quite often has. The very non beneficial ones, where the only goal is to make the other take the blame. As soon as you bring in the “think/believe” word into a scentence, you (and the other partner) know you’r dead in that discussion.