"This is a very important point you need to know; if she respects you, she will. You shouldn’t have to tutor a woman on how to respect you or treat you right. You shouldn’t have to remind her that it would be nice if she would call to say good night after a night on the town with her girlfriends so you know she got home safe, and is not enjoying a night of romping around with some chap she met at the bar. You shouldn’t have to remind her that if she has to cancel plans, the time to tell you is in advance, not after you’ve spent the last 30 minutes calling and texting to no response. You shouldn’t have to tell her that it’s not okay for her ex-boyfriend should not be calling her at 11:30PM when you are snuggled up on the couch watching Law & Order together. (Nor, should you have to tell her that she shouldn’t pick up the phone. Or should you have to tell her to ask him not to call that late anymore again.) At the end of the day if she respects you, you won’t have to worry about it."

I feel as though at least 5 times as many women need to hear/read that as it relates to men instead of the other way around.

I will say this though, in SOME cases if you have not witnessed any previous trifling behavior and something pops up, having a little talk might straighten some things out. For example, I am 3 years younger than my current S.O., he's been engaged before and had live-in S.O.'s. I, on the other hand, had not and was still in college when we met, so our lifestyles were a little different. Through a few conversations be both came to realize this fact and worked out some of the things mentioned in the third and sixth paragraphs. I had no clue I was disrespecting him until he told me because I had never been in such a serious relationship. My point is, in SOME cases, just give us a chance to make it right. We may falter, but if we do what it takes to make it work, then don't fault us too much. We're all growing and maturing every day, and a little tutoring may help if you're up for it. Sometimes the change you wanted just wont happen until we've realized what we had or until we've had the proper time to grow (which may not be on your time schedule, which is fine). Now, if homegirl just keeps it up with no signs of trying then run!

I wanted to end things with him after the first month, but what kept me from doing that was the feeling that I was thinking that stuff he had going on in his life at the moment was the cause of the negativity. In essence, maybe it wasn't a permanent personality trait. I've also been accused of being too insensitive to the plight of others sometimes, I've live a hard life and have always looked at it that there are sooooo many who have it worse. I sometimes expect others to look at life that way and at least try to be positive. The combination of me feeling like the problem was temporary and/or on my end kept me unintentionally "stringing him along".

I guess the point of my comment is that it's not always an intentional thing or about not being able to say no. Sometimes, we are genuinely hoping that what is bothering us is a temporary thing and a real connection can be forged still or think that we are just being too picky/insensitive/judgemental/etc. Not all women are either cowards or just evil. I really didn't mean for this comment to end up this long.

2) This post made me kinda sad b/c it made me realize just how long its been since I've met a guy that I'm really feeling. Sigh.

Great Post!!!