You Shouldn't Want a Boyfriend

The other day, a girl I've been seeing casually for a long time told me that she "really needs to find a boyfriend." I've known several single girls who have communicated this to me in one way or another, and they haven't only been hinting at the fact that they wanted me to be that boyfriend; they've also been expressing an honest desire. Some have suggested it through their behavior or by talking around it; but a few, like this girl, have said it explicitly.

The problem with wanting a boyfriend is that it isn't wanting a husband. Yes, of course, for some girls, saying "I need a boyfriend" is just an abbreviated way of saying that they want to meet a guy who they can date and who will eventually propose; but I wouldn't be writing this post if that applied in every case. Some girls only mean that they are tired of being lonely - that they just want companionship and to feel loved again. They might have some minimal requirements for the boyfriend, but the point is that those requirements fall significantly short of the ones they have for their future spouse.

If your end-game is getting a boyfriend, you aren't going to be filtering the men you date for their long-term compatibility. You'll get into relationships that you could have known from the outset would be terminal (if you'd stopped for a moment to think about it), and you'll end up wasting your time. So be honest with yourself about what you want in a man - maybe even write it down - and don't give in to the temptation of temporary companionship and affection.


Related Posts
1. Know Why You Are Dating
2. Don't Let a Guy Waste Your Most Eligible Years
3. Why Men Are Capable of Commitment
4. How "Hard to Get" Should You Play?
5. Men and "Friends with Benefits"

Why Men Are Capable of Commitment

I've pointed out some things about the male attitude towards relationships that - considered by themselves - might make women despair of the possibility of a real or lasting relationship (two posts that come to mind are Men and Sexual Variety and  Men Don't Have Commitment Problems). But they only represent part of the story... 

I remember a conversation that I had with an ex-girlfriend a few years ago about our fears in relationships. I told her that mine was to wake up one day, ten or twenty years into a marriage, and no longer want to be with my wife. Of course I'd only thought about the situation from the perspective of sexual attraction, and so had unsurprisingly developed the fear that I would grow bored or tired of her after she lost her beauty.

"Yeah, I see what you mean..." she agreed - but she continued, "I guess I've always just figured that the more time you spend with someone, the more you'll have invested in them. You'll have more shared experiences, more history - more memories. You'll know each other's habits, likes, dislikes, routines and quirks so much better than any new person's, that the temptation to leave won't really be that strong. You'd have to throw away everything and start again."

She was right. And I realized right then that my perspective on that hypothetical situation - and on relationships in general - was missing a huge piece of the puzzle. I was ignoring completely the phenomenon of attachment she described. I'd considered only lust and romantic love, the two early phases of relationships, and I'd lacked the experience or foresight to recognize that the situation I feared wasn't realistic.

More importantly, I realized that choosing someone to marry wasn't so much a matter of taking a gamble on the best girl possible as it was a choice of a girl to start to build a life with. In other words, the strength of the resulting relationship wasn't merely a function of the quality of the girl I would choose; much more important would be the life we'd live together - even if it wasn't perfect. By simply choosing to bind our lives together, we would be choosing to invest ourselves in each other; and before long, that investment would outweigh the greater sexual attraction of some hotter girl, or the excitement of sexual novelty.

Now, this isn't a particularly male phenomenon, but it is important for women to know that it isn't a particularly female phenomenon either. It happens to men too. So in the same way that I don't need to fear waking up twenty years from now and finding myself looking for a new wife, neither do you need to worry about your man doing it - assuming, of course, that you are both people of good-will, who are willing to work to maintain a good relationship. Even if he isn't aware of the phenomenon, it will affect him - just as it would have affected me even if I'd never had that conversation with my ex girlfriend.

The mistake I made in thinking about my future relationship is one that plagues young Americans' attitudes towards marriage. It is the reason that couples feel the need to live together before getting married, and stress out so much about choosing a partner. If these fears were rooted in reality, no relationship would succeed. There is always a hotter, richer or more-compatible partner out there; finding them isn't a prerequisite for a happy marriage, and you aren't going to renounce your vows just because you encounter them after marrying someone else. Your partner will always have the advantage of the time you've spent together and the relationship you've built.

It is also worth pointing out that this phenomenon is the main reason why you shouldn't linger in relationships that are stagnant or half-hearted. In doing so, you are investing yourself emotionally, and - despite the shortcomings of the relationship - that investment will make a break-up much more difficult.

In any case, I am writing this post because I was reminded of the whole concept a few hours ago, while listening to the lyrics of a new Dierks Bentley song, I Hold On, which is written to his wife. It's a great song, and one that I think is particularly poignant coming from a man:

If you can't watch the video, here are the words:

It's just an old beat up truck, some say that I should trade up
Now that I got some jangle in my pocket
But what they don’t understand is it's the miles that make a man
I wouldn’t trade that thing in for a rocket
What they don’t know is my dad and me, we drove her out to Tennessee
And she’s still here now he’s gone 

So I hold on... 

It's just an old beat up box, its rusty strings across the top
It probably don’t look like much to you
But these dents and scratches in the wood, yeah that’s what makes it sound so good
To me it's better than brand new
You see this here flat top guitar, has had my back in a million bars
Singing every country song 

So I hold on... 

To the things, I believe in
My faith, your love, our freedom
To the things I can count on
To keep me going strong
Yeah I hold on... I hold on... 

Like the stripes to the flag, like a boy to his dad
I cant change who I am, right or wrong
So I hold on... 

Yeah baby lookin' at you right now, there ain't never been no doubt
Without you I'd be nothing
So if you ever worry about... me walkin' out
Yeah let me tell you something...

I hold on...

Related Posts
1. The Downside of Cohabitation Before Marriage
2. We Have a Shared Responsibility
3. Why Rejection Is a Good Thing
4. The Male Sex Drive Always Recharges

Men and Sexual Variety

I recently met up with a friend for a couple drinks at a local bar. Part of our conversation went something like this:

Me: Good to see you again man, you haven't been out in forever.

Friend: I know, my girlfriend is away for the next couple weeks, and I was getting bored of being home alone.

Me: Oh yeah, how are things going with her?

Friend: It's good man, I just don't know... it's been a year and I'm starting to get kinda itchy.

Me: Yikes, you should probably go get that checked out.

Friend: HA! No, no, not itchy as in herpes, itchy as in restless. My eyes keep wandering. I keep wondering if I should end it and look for someone else.

Me: Oh OK, gotcha... but wait, really? From what Greg [his roommate, a mutual friend of ours] tells me, she treats you like a king.

Friend: Dude, no, it's true - she is awesome. She does everything I can possibly want. She never says no to sex, she cleans my apartment, she cooks food for me, she is fun to be around - everything.

Me: Sounds like a keeper. So what's the problem?

Friend: I want to fuck other girls.

Me: Ha! of course you do, you are a man; you're always going to feel like that.

Friend: Arghh, man, I KNOW. But it is really bothering me. I mean, she does everything I want. She wakes up before me in the morning to cook me breakfast, she cleans my room for me - she even cleans Greg's room sometimes. I tell her to give me a blowjob, she gives me an amazing blowjob. I tell her I am going to put it in her butt, she just asks me to use extra lube. She picked me up from the airport recently wearing a thong and an overcoat, then we fucked the second we walked in the house.

Me: Damn, that is awesome... I've never really had a girl like that.

Friend: I know man, but even with all of that, I still want to fuck other girls. Like, I would even fuck a girl less hot than her, just for the variety.

Me: Yeah... I know exactly what you mean, sometimes you just want something new. Even a smoking hot girl gets old after... well, not even after very long, you know?

Friend: Yeah man, seriously! You always have those illusions of 'the perfect girl'  - the one who you'd always be happy with and attracted to, but the fact is that the illusions wouldn't last; eventually you'd get used to her too.

Me: It's that animal instinct, man. When the hunt is over the thought of a new body starts to creep into the back of your mind - a new body with new curves, new hair and new lips... we are wired to feel that way. If men didn't want to fuck as much as we do, humans wouldn't have evolved anywhere near as quickly as we have. It's just our genetics trying to propagate the species.

Friend: Exactly. Gotta spread that seed! Hahaha, I'm just thinking about doing what mother nature wants me to do. All natural, baby.

Me: Hahah yeah but I mean, the thing is, cheating on your girl isn't going to fix the problem, it is just going to postpone it. You'd get a new girl and start to feel the same restlessness with her too.

Friend: Yeah man. I guess you are right, it just kinda sucks.

Me: Well, yeah it sucks, and at this point in my life I avoid that problem mostly by avoiding relationships in general. But I like to think that there is a girl out there that I'll like enough that I will be willing to suppress those instincts for - at least enough to get over that initial difficulty. I haven't found her yet, but it's conceivable someone like that exists. I think you just need to decide if your girl now is "that girl" for you.

Friend: Yeah maybe that's true. We'll see what happens.
__________________________

I am sure some women would try to attribute my friends' restlessness to his girlfriend being too easy or boring - and there might even be some truth to either or both of those suggestions. However, the fact remains that men will always want to have sex with multiple women. Most men successfully hide this from their wives or girlfriends (out of respect for them), and a good number of men will never act on those impulses, either because they don't know how to, are afraid of what will happen if they do, or because they realize that their sexual impulses are never going to go away, so they learn to live with and control them. But all of us feel that drive.

Related Posts
1. The Male Sex Drive Always Recharges
2. Don't Let Pornography Become Your Substitute
3. What Men Think About Your Sexual History
4. The Female's Internal Conflict

Know Why You Are Dating

Most of us don't often think of Catholic priests as authorities on dating and relationships (in fact the popular belief is exactly the opposite), but the single most influential conversation I've had about dating was one that I had with a Catholic priest while I was in college. I knew him through my family and hadn't seen him in a while. We were making the standard mundane small talk about how I was liking school and college life, when the conversation took an interesting turn onto the topic of the girl I'd been dating for the last few months. After I told him a little about her, he asked me a very pointed question:

"So do you think you could eventually marry this girl?"

"Marry her?" His question took me aback slightly. "Oh, no, we aren't going to get married... no, I mean, I like her but... well... no... No." It was clearly the first time I had even thought about it, but I knew with certainty that she wasn't the girl I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

"No?" He asked, genuinely confused. "So then... why are you dating her?" If I remember correctly, he actually laughed slightly as he asked the question.

I had no answer for him. The truth was that I just thought she was cute, and she liked me back, so we started dating. But the ridiculousness of my situation was embarrassingly obvious in the very instant he asked the question. I knew that - in light of my certainty - my relationship with her was pointless. Any more time I spent with her was time I wasn't spending looking for someone I could end up with. It wasn't very long afterwards that I broke up with her. Since then I've messed around with more girls than I can count, but I have never dated a girl that I knew I couldn't marry - because ultimately that is what I want.

I worry sometimes when I hear girls saying things like "I want him to be my first long-term boyfriend," or when people under the age of 20 get concerned that they haven't had a serious relationship yet. The implication in both examples is that everyone ought to have a string of relationships before settling down. I remember having the same mindset myself at that age. I see it still in some of my friends. This notion isn't the exception, it is the norm. With Hollywood as our vehicle, we Americans have cultivated the expectation of "dating for dating's sake." We seem to believe there is some benefit to attaching oneself emotionally to another person only to tear away again after a year or so, and then repeating the process until eventually becoming jaded, old and single. Granted, no one hopes for this outcome and we have these peripheral ideas about needing time with a person to test the relationship, but in the end of the day, serial relationships do more harm than good.

As unfair as it might seem, this phenomenon is more damaging to woman than men. For many men, the honest answer to the priest's second question is that they want their girlfriend for her beauty and, in most cases, for sex. In many relationships, men don't get emotionally invested - they just get laid for a while. If the girl gets attached in the process, it just means the breakup will be messier. Even when a man does get emotionally invested, it usually occurs more slowly and to a lesser degree. Sound familiar? If the countless e-mails I get from readers, or my female friends' stories and my own experience are any indication, you know what I am talking about.

Relationships are tough. Breakups are no joke. Yes, the initial thrill of a new relationship is exciting, but each time that excitement grows less and less because you grow accustomed to it. You gradually throw away the innocence that allows for deep emotional attachment to a single partner, in exchange for a series of brief, shallower attachments that cause you to raise your defenses against something permanent. What doesn't end in permanency is bound to end in heartbreak, and if you eventually want to get married, you are doing yourself a disservice by ignoring that fact in the interest of "not over-thinking it" or "living in the moment." While emotional risk is important and necessary in order to find someone you really connect with, dating with no objective is nothing short of reckless.

So before you get involved with someone new, make sure you know what you are looking for - and more importantly for women, what he is looking for. Know what you want from him, and make sure he is on the same page. If you both just want to hook up, great. If you both need a quick rebound, go for it. If you both want someone to settle down with, count yourself lucky. But if you don't know what you want or he doesn't share your motivations, you risk wasting your most eligible years, sustaining emotional damage, and giving away a piece of yourself that you then can't offer to the man you do stay with.

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If you liked this post, you'll definitely like my book, Beyond the Breakup. This post has been expanded and rewritten as a chapter, along with other chapters that explain how to think about dating and relationships in a way that will help you attract solid, confident men.

We Have a Shared Responsibility

I was reminded recently of a comment that I once heard a radio DJ make after he played the Destiny's Child song Independent Woman. The song is a kind of self-purported anthem for female independence, and one verse goes like this:

Question, tell me, how do you feel about this?
Try to control me boy you get dismissed
Pay my own fun, oh and I pay my own bills
Always 50-50 in relationships

As the song faded out, the DJ scoffed and said something along the lines of "Always 50-50 in relationships? Clearly these girls have never been married, because if it isn't 100-100 in a relationship, sorry, but it isn't going to work." That comment has always stuck with me.

Because most of the posts I write are about the things women should do to please and attract men, readers might get the impression that I think relationships should consist entirely of a woman constantly working to attract and please her boyfriend or husband. While I do think that a woman needs to constantly work to do so, I also believe that a man has the equally onerous obligation of constantly attracting, protecting and providing for his woman. A man should pour as much energy into his efforts as his woman pours into hers. As the radio DJ pointed out, both parties need to be giving 100 % if they want it to work.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), this blog is not the correct forum for giving men advice about how to make their efforts, which is why it might give some readers an impression of one-sidedness; but I definitely do not believe relationships are a one-way street.

The Downside of Cohabitaiton Before Marriage

Check out this post at Charming Disarray:

http://charmingdisarray.blogspot.com/2012/04/wouldnt-it-be-nice.html

From the conversations I've had with my male friends, I can confirm the masculine opinion described here:

"Women are more likely to view cohabitation as a step toward marriage, while men are more likely to see it as a way to test a relationship or postpone commitment."

If you are currently living with your boyfriend, or even just open to the idea of moving in together, this post is worth reading - assuming, of course, that you ultimately want to get (and stay) married.

Don't Let a Guy Waste Your Most Eligible Years

If you are interested in getting married, you need to be well aware of the fact that you are probably most attractive sometime in your mid- to late-twenties. This means that your mid- to late-twenties are the years in which you are most likely to attract the highest quality man you can get. And while I've written a fair amount about maximizing your attractiveness, it all counts for nothing if you aren't single when the right guy comes along, or if you aren't putting yourself out there because you are involved with someone who is only half-committed to you. So in addition to looking your best, you need to make sure you aren't spending time in dead-end relationships.

Time and time again I see or hear about girls who allow a guy to date them for three or four years in their twenties without proposing. This blows my mind. I understand that these girls are holding out in the hope of eventually getting a proposal, but they don't give enough consideration to the possibility that they'll be strung along for another two or three years, only to have him decide that he wants someone else - or worse yet, someone younger. Combine this with a girl's reduced odds of finding someone (let alone someone better) once she begins to age and things begin to fall into perspective; it seems crazy to consider dating someone for more than a year without a very strong confidence about the direction in which the relationship is heading.

If the same graph showed the value of a house you owned over time, there is no way in hell you'd be renting it out for long periods of time between 20 and 30 years, when it's value is highest. You would either leave it vacant during that time for prospective buyers, or at most, only agree to month-to-month leases so that it would be available to sell when a buyer came along with a good price. You'd also be actively advertising the property, because you'd want to take advantage of its high value. I'll let you draw the analogy.

Don't give a guy your most eligible years with nothing to show for it. This is bullshit. If you ultimately want to get married and your current relationship isn't constantly growing stronger (i.e. approaching something permanent), then you need to start asking questions. And if you aren't getting satisfactory answers, it is time to look elsewhere. The clock is ticking.

Furthermore, your time is your responsibility - not his. For better or worse, men will not make commitments that aren't required of them. If he isn't taking things to the next level when you think it is appropriate, break up with him. You can do this nicely, and you should explain your reasoning clearly, but you should still break up with him. More easily said than done? Probably. But it is the best move nonetheless. If he really wants you, he will try to get you back; but if he doesn't, remember: during your most eligible years, you are better off being back on the market than tied up in a dead-end relationship.