POLL: Fights w/ SO. How often? How long?

I don’t think my SO and I have had anything that could be considered a fight, due to the fact he always apologises if he does something that annoys me. I may ignore his phone calls for a day or two, but that’s about it.

I’ve just realised my SO has never shouted at me. :cool:

My wife and I have never had a fight in the almost-seven years we’ve been married. No serious arguments, no raised voices, nothing. Neither of us is so hard to get along with that fighting is likely to occur. That’s the kind of marriage I wished I could have, and by some kind of miracle, it’s exactly the kind of marriage I’ve got!
Neener!

We almost never fight. Maybe once, twice a year. We get snippy with each other on a pretty regular basis, mainly when one or both of us is tired and cranky and just generally in a foul mood. We cut each other slack for that, though, and it rarely goes beyond a snippy comment or two. It helps that we’re both pretty good at recognizing when we’re tired and cranky and just plain old being pissy and we usually apologize for it well before things come anywhere close to getting out of hand.

When we do fight, it’s usually because we’ve got very different ways of processing anger and related issues. I have a bad temper and tend to say very, very ugly things if I try to discuss issues while I’m actively angry. I’ve hurt a lot of people really badly over the years like that, and it’s something I’ve spent years fighting. So I don’t talk about stuff while I’m angry. I stew in my own juices for a while, then either I decide that I was being unreasonably pissy and there’s really nothing to talk about or I decide there’s a real issue and talk about when we can actually have a productive conversation. Dr.J is more of a “let’s get it all out right here and now” kind of guy. It’s really hard for him to step back and give me the space I need to get to the discussion point, especially when I’m actually mad and not just irritated. So he keeps trying to get me to talk about it, which is rather like poking a pissed-off bear with a pointy stick. It just makes me more pissed-off and determined to keep my trap shut so I won’t say something I’ll regret, which makes him even more desperate to get me to talk, which just pisses me off more. I usually wind up leaving the house because it’s the only way I’ve found to break us out of the cycle.

My last girlfriend and I got into a fight, quite often escalating into shouting matches, nearly every single day.

My current girlfriend and I haven’t had a single fight in the little over a year that we’ve been together.