up all night said:
miss_goody: I was recently discussing with my female friends that these days it tends to be the men who are overly romantic (bordering on overbearing) and it's the women who lose interest quickly and shy away from the romantic gestures.
Maybe I just know good people, but pretty much all the guys I know are reliable and caring. If they're not reliable and caring I tend to date them.
I'd class myself as a romantic, but as you say, women lose interest.
I think I've lost some of the idealistic romantic assocation with love in the last few years of being single. It has undoubtably given me a mountain of perspective on myself, past relationships and people in general.
It's amazing what you find out about yourself when you have to face the world without someone else tagging along.
I'm also putting it down to a definite state of maturing. We'd all like to think we know everything but really, we don't.
There is a definite need for a balance in relationships. Emotional attachment with the freedom to still be your own person. Although a relationship is a unit I don't think its idealistic or unreasonable to think you can't be seperate people with seperate lives who do their own thing.
After 3 long term relationships of thinking that space just meant the other person was ready to leave there's been a lot learnt since then.
I never want to lose that romantic nature but by the same token a bit of forethought, understanding and space is required for a healthy long term relationship.
I guess being single teaches you that more than anything. Once you get over the initial shock to the system you come to realise the freedom being your own person brings leading you to fully appreciate how important that is in a relationship.
I mean, how can you possibly be happy and content with someone else in your life if you can't even gain that by yourself?