How To Respond When Your Date Says “I’m Not Ready for a Relationship”
Whatever you do, don’t beg them to reconsider.
My daughter came home this week with tears streaming down her face. Her new boyfriend decided he wasn’t “mentally ready for a relationship,” and sent her a detailed text that essentially boiled down to “it’s not you, it’s me.”
The kid handled this news perfectly. She cried because she really liked this young man, and enjoyed the budding relationship. I opened my arms, and she hugged me tightly, and then hugged her dad. She called her friends and complained. She didn’t respond to the boy. She didn’t beg him to reconsider. She didn’t blast his name on social media.
I have children who are navigating the dating world as teens and young adults, so this is something that comes up regularly in our conversations. Sometimes people they date are looking for a different type of relationship. Sometimes, the other person isn’t feeling chemistry.
When someone you’re dating tells you that they aren’t interested in a relationship for any reason it is not your job to change their mind. It is your job to take your badass self somewhere else, lick your wounds, and move on.
“It’s not like I can be mad at him for being self-aware and communicating with me,” my daughter…
