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Old 07-30-2014, 09:22 AM
  # 14 (permalink)  
lillamy
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I hope everything went well and that you had fun, Amy!

Also -- one thing I've found, even though I married a guy I have known most of my life, is that sometimes, our expectations aren't even clear in our own heads, let alone to other people. And you don't have to explain why to anyone else this minute -- for me, the first step was to make my expectations clear to myself.

For example -- your expectation that he would call you and make sure you got home OK? That's your expectation. To me, like RSW said, a man calling after a first date to make sure I got home OK would feel creepy and sticky and overbearing and borderline controlling. So we've got different experiences, and different expectations. I think the first thing might be to make clear to yourself that some of these things are my expectations and they're not obvious to other people. If you can see them as your expectations rather than interpreting someone else's lack of fulfilling them as carrying some meaning, I think that's a good first step.

And I'm not telling you what to do here. I'm talking from my own experiences.

For example: My husband is a night owl. Sometimes, he'll find out at 11 pm that we're out of coffee and decide to run to the store and get some. It's a sweet thing to do, a loving thing to do -- but the first time I woke up and he wasn't in the house I panicked and went into crazy mode. I was bawling when he came home and his explanation was "Honey, I simply didn't want to wake you up." I then realized that in my mind, I had interpreted his leaving without telling me as not caring -- while in his mind, it was the most loving thing to do, to let me sleep.

Relationships are complicated. But you're only responsible for your end. For knowing yourself and knowing what are your expectations and what are you "overreaching" in your mind and assigning motives to someone else
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