Did you see all the coverage to mark the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s 10th wedding anniversary?

We’ve also been married for 10 years and after seeing the royal headlines I couldn’t help but reflect on the last decade in our house – for better and for worse!

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We tied the knot in July 2010 and the truth is there’s an awful lot I know now that I didn’t know then. Things that simply don’t occur to you when you’re standing at the altar saying your vows – and if they did you’d probably run a mile! (Here we are, all footloose and fancy-free!)

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So, for anyone else who’s been married or in a relationship for a few years – and to mark the Cambridge’s 10th wedding anniversary – I thought it would be fun to share 10 things you only know after 10 years of marriage!

10 things you only know after 10 years of marriage!

1. Marriage is basically deciding what to have for dinner for the rest of your life.

That meme about marriage and dinner is so true (although I doubt the Cambridge’s have the same problem!) I swear we’ve asked each other what to have for dinner at least once a day for the last 10 years.

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2. Pants last a long time.

In fact I’m pretty sure we’ve both still got pants that pre-date our wedding day. We’re not the only ones, right?!

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3. You find yourself agreeing to harebrained schemes.

Like running 150 miles across the Sahara desert when you’re type 1 diabetic. When Misery Guts first mooted the idea of the Marathon des Sables, a 150 mile foot race dubbed the toughest footrace on earth, I smiled and nodded never thinking it would actually happen (see 10 tongue-in-cheek ways I’m dealing with my husband’s midlife crisis). Well it did happen – and little did I know it would take three years of training, zillions of hours running and blood, sweat and tears to get there. Let’s just say we both deserved a medal by the end of it!

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4. It’s important to keep laughing.

Because let’s face it: sometimes if you didn’t laugh you’d cry – especially in the middle of a global pandemic! There’s funny in everything if you look hard enough – like writing naughty words in alphabites and serving them up to unsuspecting kids.

5. It’s not all fun and games. And that’s ok.

Did you see the vomit-inducing video released to mark the Cambridge’s wedding anniversary? With the Duke and Duchess gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes while the young royals frolick and romp on the beach? If I had the time, the energy and the outfits I’d be tempted to do a spoof video on what married life with three kids is really like. It would be equally vomit-inducing, but not in a good way!

6. Sometimes I could cheerfully throttle him.

Misery Guts I mean, not Prince William. And that’s ok too. I’m sure sometimes he could cheerfully throttle me.

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7. You have to wait ages to get a good anniversary present.

By which I mean something gold or silver or with a gem stone in it. Because loo roll (paper) and a can of beans (tin) might be funny but they don’t really cut it on the romance front. (Although admittedly both are jolly useful).

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8. There’s nothing funny about being married 10 years.

That’s what Misery Guts said when I told him the subject of this post and asked him for a tongue-in-cheek contribution. Who says romance is dead?!

9. It goes by in the blink of an eye

One minute you’re walking up the aisle, the next minute you’ve got four kids, two cats and doing the ‘big shop’ is as good as going out-out gets. Sometimes I look around at us all and think ‘how did that happen?!’

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10. If you can survive lockdown, you can survive anything.

Of course lockdown tested us all in different ways – for us that meant living, working and homeschooling two kids in a two bedroom flat with no garden while entertaining a three-year-old and looking after a newborn during a hijacked maternity leave. And yes that is as bad as it sounds – but we survived and we’re still smiling!

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Are you married or in a long term relationship and is there anything you only know after however many years together? I’d love to know what it is!

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7 things NOT to say to a pregnant woman in a pandemic!

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6 wishes for my lockdown baby at six months old