There's a two-minute window every evening when couples can either strengthen their bond with each other or unknowingly weaken it.
In my experience as a psychologist who studies couples, what separates the happy couples from the unhappy ones isn't necessarily how often they argue or how much time they have together. It's whether the two people are genuinely in contact with each other's lives.
Partners in happy relationships know what the other one is really going through, week after week. The unhappy ones have often slipped into a kind of parallel coexistence, where they share a home and a calendar and not much else.
That difference can be built or lost in moments that may feel too small to matter. I call them "reentry moments."
"Reentry moments" are the first minute or two when a couple comes back together after time apart. These reunions follow any period of temporary physical separation, whether that's a workday, a weekend away with friends or a four-day work trip.