Amanda's husband Caleb is her best friend.
"I would prefer to hang out with him than anyone else," the 43-year-old from Canberra/Ngunnawal country says.
"If people ask me to go out, it's really hard to say yes, because I'd prefer to stay home with him.
"I know I'm just going to have a really nice time."
Amanda says while their relationship may seem "vanilla and boring", they're a safe space for one another.
"Our relationship is really comfortable. We're not looking for something new and exciting. We're really looking at investing in what we already have."
That's partly how they've been able to stay happy in their long-term relationship, Amanda says.
And experts would agree.
Yumi Stynes, host of ABC podcast Ladies, We Need to Talk, explores what couples who like each other are doing behind closed doors to keep the love alive when life gets busy and unsexy.
Good friendship key to long-term happiness
Gemma Cribb is a clinical psychologist and says happiness in long-term relationships "basically boils down to a really good friendship".
Ms Cribb says research has found that "keeping in touch with each other's internal world" is key to that foundation.
"Actually asking each other ongoing questions, not just 'How was your day?' but 'What's going on for you that I need to know about?'"
Fondness and admiration are also important, she says.
"Making a conscientious effort to appreciate what your partner brings to your life, not just focusing on the negative.
"Looking for how they add value and how they make your life easier and feeding that back to them."
Lastly, Ms Cribb says couples need to respond to one another's needs. For example, noticing when your partner seems stressed and offering support.
We're often told shared interests and humour are what keeps couple together, but Ms Cribb says those factors can be overrated.
"People's interests change over time, so if you connect purely over your shared interests of yachting and somebody gets a permanent injury, which means they can no longer yacht, we want to have something else underneath that … keeps that friendship alive."
Not trying to change one another
Ms Cribb says real love is "accepting your partner, warts and all".
She says research on happy couples shows they had "no change agendas" for the repetitive issues in the relationship.
"Most couples argue about money, sex, time, mess, and kids, and most of those arguments will never get resolved because it's just based on who you are as a person. Someone's messy, someone's not as messy. Someone's always late, someone's always on time.
"Healthy couples still talk about those sort of friction points, but they do so with humour and affection, not with a change agenda."
Amanda says when she was first with Caleb, his introverted nature bothered her.
"I always imagined someone who would kind of match me as … someone who was social and had a lot of friends.
"I would definitely be frustrated with him for not wanting to go to social events."
She eventually decided to "love Caleb no matter what and have his back".
"If he never changes, that is totally fine."
But then to her surprise, he did.
"When I accepted him utterly and completely for every bit of him, including his introvertedness, that was when I think he felt totally supported and he was able to start to change," Amanda says.
Rituals to connect
Sarah, not her real name, has been with her partner since she was 15 — although for a long time they were just friends.
The 35-year-old from Melbourne/Naarm says no matter how chaotic life gets with their little one, they always make time to connect.
"We always kiss each other goodbye. And now our son will say, 'Dad, kiss Mum.' So he'll give us a little reminder, which is really helpful.
"Also just little things like the end of the day when the baby's gone to bed, I will always lie my head on [my partner's] lap and he will just comb my hair, and we'll just sit together and watch crap TV."
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Sarah says finding time to be intimate can be hard with a toddler, but they know it's just a phase in their lives.
"We wrote on our whiteboard on the back of the front door, 'We still love each other, we're just tired.'"
Ms Cribb says intentionally creating rituals to connect keeps couples together.
For example, spending a few minutes chatting over a cup of tea in the morning about what is coming up for the day.
We don't see enough happy relationships
Sarah says it's kind of expected that couples "bitch about" their partner, and that her happy relationship doesn't always fit the stereotype of parents of young children.
"Sometimes I do find when people are complaining about their partners, I have to almost not lie, but just highlight things about [my partner] that annoy me so I can join in the conversation."
Ms Cribb says we're not shown what relationships should look like after the Hollywood ending of sparks and passion.
"We don't actually get taught the skills of how to keep that interest and connection alive.
"It requires as much work as anything else in your life that you want to maintain for the long-term."
