“How is our credit rating with our family and friends?”

A person’s credit rating is defined as “an estimate of the ability of a person to fulfill their financial commitments, based on previous dealings.”(www.vocabulary.com) If we reword this definition so it relates to friends and family we can come up with a similar definition. A person’s relationship credit rating could be defined as an estimate of the ability of a person to fulfill their relationship commitments based on previous dealings. What does this mean? Relationships are based on the concept of give and take, not take and take. If within our relationships we are only taking, then our credit rating may not be so good. Do we ask or receive help from others but we do not make ourselves available to return the favor. If we are not dependable or reliable within our relationships but our friends and family are, then our credit rating with them may be less than desirable. Are we that person that says I will be there at 8:00 pm, and then we cancel at the last minute giving an unbelievable excuse or reason? What about our behavior? Are we that friend or family member that is always so dramatic or the one that makes everyone in the room question our motives? We can negatively affect our relationship credit rating when we are in the unfortunate position where we need to borrow money from a friend or family member and we don’t go out of our way to repay what we borrowed. We should not be hunted down by the person that so graciously loaned us money, we should be proactive to pay this person back or at least regularly communicate if we cannot repay the loan as originally agreed.

We can improve or repair our relationship credit rating by being better friends and family. When we hear our friends and family are in need of support or just a listening ear, let’s give back to the relationship by making ourselves available. We can do this by being reliable and just doing what we say we are going to do. We can reach out to the person that instilled trust in us to pay back a loan by reaching out to them when your ability to pay them back has changed. We can treat our friends and family like a business should treat their customers, we simply want our interactions to be good experiences each and every time. When our financial credit rating is good we benefit from a good rating by being able to obtain a loan for something important that we need or want. When our relationship credit rating is good, there is a mutual benefit that is realized by those we have relationships with resulting in a more fulfilling life for us. We should look for ways to improve our relationship credit rating as it can always be improved.

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