boston.com Love Letters - How To Do a Break-Up
Posted by
Diva (aka Diva)
Jul 2 '13, 07:10
|
Dear Meredith and the LL readers/commenters,
There have been many discussions on this blog about breakups, but they seem to mostly be along the lines of whether a couple should break up and/or how to get over a breakup. My question is about breakup etiquette.
I have been both the break-up initiator and the one being broken up with, but for this discussion I am more interested in how to "properly" break-up with someone. People say breakups should be done in person, but in some of my past break-ups this almost seemed to cause more harm than good. What if it is a long-distance relationship? Do you have your significant other drive/fly X number of hours to you just to break up with them in person? Or spend X number of hours and dollars to travel to them (in one instance of mine, to another country on another continent) to break it off to then turn around and go home?
People also say you should avoid blindsiding someone with a breakup. How do you really continue a relationship if you behave in a manner that would indicate to your significant other that you aren't happy? Or, if you tell your significant other that you have some doubts but want to see how things progress, how is he/she supposed to deal with that and move on in a constructive manner? Doesn't that kill any confidence or trust in the relationship at that point?
My current situation is that I am going to break up w my boyfriend of eight months. We have known each other for almost six years and he is 100 percent into this relationship -- wants to move in together, get married, and live happily ever after. From the beginning I was more reserved and said I wanted to take things slow and see what developed. There have been good times and bad with us, but for me, I don't see it working out. It isn't what I want, and I feel like I need to end things so we can both move on.
While I believe he knows I am on a different page, I don't think he is expecting me to break up with him (here we go with the blindsiding). Do I wait a couple weeks to pull away a bit, explain that I am not sure what I want (even though I already know this isn't working for me), if only to give him some adjustment time for what is coming? Or do I just have the talk with him now and break it off -- thereby blindsiding him? I know it's not nice to lead someone on when you already know the end is coming, but it's not nice to pull the rug out from underneath a person either. I want to do the "right" thing, but the gray areas keep getting in my way.
Thank you for your help!
� Breaker-Upper in Mass.
|
Responses:
|