Trading Places: The Best Move You'll Ever Make in Your Marriage (Hardcover)

by Les and Leslie Parrott (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Couples who are stepping on each other’s toes should try walking in each other’s shoes. Trading Places reduces conflict, deepens your commitment, and helps you live as better friends and lovers. Mutual empathy—the revolutionary tool for instantly improving a relationship—can be learned and practiced, say the authors of this groundbreaking book. Their guidance will transform your marriage.

From the Back Cover
To understand your spouse you’ve got to walk in his or her shoes.

Ever feel like you’re stepping on each other’s toes? Then maybe it’s time you put yourselves in each other’s shoes. Of course that may sound uncomfortable. But it’s easier than you think—and it will revolutionize your relationship. In fact, bestselling authors Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott reveal the little-known secrets of putting the time-tested strategy of trading places to work in your own marriage.

In this book, chock-full of practical helps and tips you’ve never thought of, you’ll learn the three-step-strategy to trading places and, as a result, you’re sure to:


· Increase your levels of passion
· Bolster your commitment
· Eliminate nagging
· Short-circuit conflict
· Double your laughter
· Forgive more quickly
· Talk more intimately


In short, you’ll be more understanding and better understood. In other words, you’ll experience—day after day—the unconditional love every couple longs for.

“We’ve often fantasized about being able to literally hand a box of mutual empathy—the revolutionary tool for instantly improving a relationship—to the couples that attend our seminars. Well, this book is the closest we’ll ever come to being able to do just that.”
--Les and Leslie Parrott

Most couples never discover the rewards of trading places. For example, did you know it’s the quickest way to get your own needs met? It’s true! And Les and Leslie show you how. They also disclose exactly how trading places improves your conversations and how it’s guaranteed to fire up your sex life. Truly, your love life and your entire marriage will never be the same after you learn the intimate dance of trading places.

This book also features a powerful, free online assessment, powered by eHarmony Marriage that instantly improves your inclination to trade places. How? By zeroing in on exactly what you’d most like your spouse to accurately understand about you. In addition, two workbooks with no-nonsense exercises—one for you and one for your spouse—will help you apply each chapter to your own marriage.

Les and Leslie have made it easy. So why not walk a few steps in your spouse’s shoes, starting today? Whether you’re a newlywed couple or you’ve been married for decades, it’s never too early or too late to attain the power of trading places.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310272467
• ISBN-13: 978-0739496640
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #301,184 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book That's a Bit Scattered and Unfocused, July 23, 2008

By	Mediaman "TVviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews

The idea of Trading Places is great--to have empathy with your spouse in order to help your marriage. The book is filled with good examples and specific advice in typical Parrott fashion.

But the book is written in a scattered writing style, where unrelated stories are strung together and concepts are sometimes poorly defined. The authors take just about any story that that could come up with as an example of empathy, even though many of the stories are really examples of kindness or sympathy instead of empathy. So they could better define the theme of the book, find stronger examples of the points they are making and then write the book in a less short-attention-span style to make it flow better. It often comes across like they each divided up the chapters by theme, then each clipped articles or did a Web search on the theme and tied it all together. Namely, sometimes it is disjointed and choppy and doesn't flow as well as it should. The positive side of that is that you can read just a page or two at a time and don't need to read chapters as a whole in one sitting.

Another suggestion is that the book may have been better if it would have been applied to ALL relationships and not just spouses. The idea of empathy could work with children, adult parents, siblings, co-workers, strangers we encounter, etc. Their focus on spouses is fine but often the points they make could be better applied to a larger group of relationships.

So it's another good book from them but could use some good editing and maybe more time devoted to strengthening their points.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Love This Book!, April 24, 2008

By	Kay (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

If you're looking for a practical way to improve your marriage quickly, this is it. It's all about walking in your partner's shoes - a simple concept that I usually have a hard time doing. Until now. The authors gave me some new ideas I hadn't thought of before. I tried them out and it instantly turned around a potential conflict. Once I got into the book, my husband noticed it on my nightstand and is now reading it as well! By the way, the his/her workbooks are a big plus if you're looking for ways to personalize the book's content or study the book in a small group.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars trading places: the best move you'll ever make in your marriage, June 18, 2008

By	emmie "emmie" (USA) - See all my reviews

Excellent. Empathy is a must and this book oozes with how to get it and keep it in your marriage.