Originally Posted by
Progressus
This thread is great!
I can fully relate to what you're saying. It's not like I'm in a relationship right now, in fact I'm afraid my current affair is going down the tubes (for other reasons than what you mentioned). But I think I've shown this weird behavior myself in the past. While that's long gone (no more relationships for me), I think I can still say something useful here.
Anyway, what you're describing fits my best friend to 100%. He's in a long-term commitment with his girl, ten years and counting. To give you some insight how all this developed, I need to get about ten years back:
Him and me, we both were long-time singles, and we always had a lot of fun together doing all kinds of stuff. But then he met this girl. Although I do like her today, I wasn't very fond of her in the beginning: very low self esteem, and thus an almost sick control freak. Well, instead of revolting at least to some extent, he transformed from a self-confident man into an incredible sissy. Seriously, it hurts me writing this down, but that's what SHE (his girlfriend) did to him: Controlling and manipulating him. Probably out of fear of losing her, he put up with all her bullshit. Unfortunately this sissy behavior didn't only apply to his relationship (she was always the alpha), it slowly got a hold of almost all areas of his life (at least that's how I see it, he still kind of ignores it and doesn't want to realize what's happening). He finished school later than me, and while I'm out of college for almost four years making more than enough money, he's still living the life of a teenager (sort of): He's not willing to go out ("I have no money", "She'll be mad at me", "I don't want to meet other girls"), he has NO AMBITION whatsoever regarding finally getting his college degree, and when it comes to outward appearances: Ten years from now, he was a good looking guy-- today he must have gained like 50 pounds (easily!), and it doesn't really look like he's making any effort to change anything.
To cut a long story short: I think you'll find a lot of similarities in what I'm describing. What I want you to do now is ask yourself this:
Did it ever occur to you that - maybe, just maybe - you're responsible for your men's development, even if it's only on a very small scale?
Don't get me wrong... I'm not trying to offend you. I'm just trying to give you another perspective. See, talking about my best friend: I didn't like his girlfriend in the beginning, today I do. I realized she changed, she's no longer that sick control freak. However, I still think it was HER that made my friend develop into some sort of chump. And now that he's lazy, fat and demotivated, I don't think he's going to do any better women-wise. That's the biggest reason he doesn't want to split up.
Anyway, sorry for bothering you if that's not what you wanted to hear, but it crossed my mind instantly when reading your topic.