Switch roles with your partner. For one day be the other person. If you take your kids to school every day, have your husband or wife do it today. If you cook each night and your wife cleans up, reverse the tasks and see what develops. Make sure you make a mutual pact beforehand that you can do whatever you want today the way you want to do it, that no one can compare what happens to the way things are normally done.

If you choose to take the kids by bus, that is your prerogative. Turning the task into an adventure might be fun — and a challenge, to boot. If you are going to cook tonight, you can make something new. Try a dish that he normally makes but in your own way, or order in from a nearby restaurant. There are no rules to follow, no patterns to adhere to. This is a day to break new ground.

What is life like for your spouse or partner? Does one of you normally answer the ringing telephone? Have the other one perform this task today. Do you object to the television being turned on immediately after dinner? Make sure you do this as well today, with the roles reversed. See what life is like from the other side.

Love thrives in an atmosphere of understanding, and one of the ways to gain this is to experience what the other person does every day, to live life as he or she lives it.

Alan Epstein in How to Have More Love in Your Life