Inside this episode:

• What they're really doing vs. what the internet says you "have to"
• The roles all five kids are playing in the day
• Their non-negotiable lists — the things that absolutely have to happen
• The one planning moment that already made someone cry
• The part that's making Bethanie "super scared"
• Plus the very first run of a brand-new segment: Pet Peeve & Pet Love

Better Together (Most Days) — real relationship talk, most days.

Episode 7 is the lighter one — James and Bethanie get into the screen-time tug-of-war, the "cave" dynamic when one of you disappears into a game or a phone, and what it really costs when you're busy capturing the moment instead of actually being in it. Photos vs. presence, and the small daily negotiations every couple makes about attention.

Plus: the wedding tease that sets up Episode 8.

Better Together (Most Days) — real relationship talk, most days.

Episode 6 is the conversation they've been promising since Episode 5: gaslighting and narcissism, why those two go hand in hand, and what it looks like when you've lived through it. Bethanie's entire last relationship was a master class — a narcissist who was also an alcoholic, with all the "I never said that" and conveniently forgotten events that come with the package. She opens up about the cycle of apologizing at the end of every fight even when she had a real concern, and the years of self-help books that came after.

James talks about his own drinking history — a sip of his dad's beer at 10, a half-gallon of Everclear at 14, and the friend's mom who busted them with the line "well, it is ever so clear to me…" He also breaks down the boundary lesson he learned from an old boss: every walk-in to your office that could've been a 30-second text or email is 10 minutes torn out of your day, and being polite doesn't mean being permanently available.

There's a real conversation about teaching kids the difference between getting their way and being entitled, why a parent who's a narcissist passes it down, and how you set limits with a family member without nuking the relationship. Plus the "palm trees" code phrase James and Bethanie now use when one of them isn't ready to have the hard conversation yet.

Not a clinical episode. Just two people who have been on the receiving end of this stuff naming it out loud.

Episode 5 is the conversation about emotional distance — the radio silence, the shutting down, and how you protect your peace without shutting your partner out. James and Bethanie get into business burnout bleeding into the relationship, the Hershey story, and why knowing your core values is what keeps you steady when everything else is noisy.

Plus the tee-up for the gaslighting conversation that lands in Episode 6.

Better Together (Most Days) — real relationship talk, most days.

James and Bethanie come in with a clear topic — how to communicate when you're both mad — and somehow also end up debating ice cream flavors, what happens to utensils left unattended near a sink, and the eternal question: why will she never just pick a restaurant?

Underneath the laughs, there's real advice: the 90/10 rule (only 10% of your emotions come from what happens to you — the other 90% are yours to own), why removing the word "you" from arguments changes everything, the difference between "I'll try" and "I will," and what it means to match your partner's energy when you both run hot.

Plus a very honest pet peeves segment featuring nail flicking, rage cleaning, a drill with interchangeable scrub brush heads, and an ice cream ordering incident that James is still not fully over.

With two weeks of business relocation behind them and exhaustion at an all-time high, James and Bethanie get real about what it takes to stay connected when life will not slow down. They talk scheduling spontaneity (yes, it's a thing and yes it works), why calling your partner "mean" as a joke still causes real damage, the guilt of being a busy parent, and how the smallest moments are almost always the ones that actually stick.

James also shares one of the most powerful things his mom ever said to him during the hardest season of his life. And there's a story involving a three-year-old, a construction site, and a needle through a foot.

This is what came out — a real conversation about what passes for masculinity online, and what actually holds a marriage together when nobody's watching.

In this episode:

• Why the Louis Theroux doc made Bethanie lose it
• "One-sided monogamy" — the term we'd never heard but instantly recognized
• How long is too long to leave your partner on read?
• Bethanie's first haircut in six years and what it taught her about grace
• The cave and the well — the one rule that keeps "alone time" from feeling like abandonment

Plus: we officially renamed the show this episode. James still thinks "How to Fix Your Relationship with BJ" was funny. Bethanie has spoken.

Better Together (Most Days) is hosted by James and Bethanie — a blended family running businesses, raising kids, and figuring marriage out one honest conversation at a time.

New episodes Thursdays. Follow on Facebook: Better Together (Most Days)

In our actual first episode, we get into the five types of couples (turns out the internet has thoughts on this, and so do we), the wisdom of an old man who said the secret to 60+ years was that he never stopped courting her, and what we both got out of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus — even though neither of us has actually finished it. Apparently we're a "vital couple, most days," with some volatile thrown in for flavor.

We also tackle three hypotheticals you've probably argued about with your own partner: Would we have worked out if we'd met 10 years ago? Should couples share passwords? And the big one — should you ever go to bed angry? Bethanie says yes (give her a minute to process). James says absolutely not. We're both right and both wrong, depending on the day.

By the end, we Google our zodiac compatibility live, because we're a Cancer and a Virgo, and the internet has receipts.

This is the show we wish existed when we were figuring it out. We're better together. Most days.

Topics: Five types of couples, the lost art of courting your partner, Mars vs. Venus, going to bed angry, sharing passwords, Cancer/Virgo compatibility.