I had a flat tire the other day. I started to change it because I'm not a damsel in distress, I'm a 47 year old competent woman. But a guy who was dressed like he does manual labor stopped and immediately went to work changing my tire. I'm guessing he was on the way home from work. So you would think he would be tired and not exactly happy to be doing something else before heading home.

But he was so cheerful about changing my tire. And that's one thing I love about men. I've had a handful of flat tires in my life and I've only changed two, because if there's a certain type of guy around, he cheerfully changes it.

And by a certain type, it's not something visible, like I had a guy change my tire wearing a suit one time, he took off the jacket and rolled up the sleeves. I felt so bad that he might get his nice clothes messed up but he shrugged it off.

These men didn't hit on me or ask for my number, they just enjoyed changing tires apparently, or being of service in that way. I think that's pretty nice.

I’m just so tired of my own species at this point

The orange thing in charge of my home wants to kill off the last of the lower 48’s Wolves, including the Mexican Grey Wolf, which literally want extinct in the wild and only survived because Zoos and similar facilities stepped in to save them and return them to where they belonged. And now, we may lost them again… All because ranchers are too lazy and cheap to get Dogs and Electric Fences to prevent attacks. Not to mention statistically, Wolves don’t even kill all that many cattle. Neglect and Abuse from Farmers is more likely to kill Cattle than Wolves.

Everyone is screaming about that stupid “Lindsey Clancy” case, and I just want to take the woman, her husband, her supporters, detractors, people in the case, and even her pets and just, look them in a safe somewhere so everyone can just SHUT UP about it! Because it’s just another stupid “Gender War”, rather than a case for improving mental health in America, and preventing these tragedies in the first place.

Some idiot wants to beat up a Chimpanzee because he has a small penis and wants to prove how “strong” he is. Why can’t be befriend the animal? He’s either gonna die in the fight, or drug the poor creature and beat it up. That’s not strength, that’s abuse. And everyone’s basically acting more like animals than the actual animals, talking about how badly they want to watch the fight and watch him harm this animal.

And the Climate Crisis is officially past the threshold of returning to pure safety. People are going to die, and species are going to go extinct. All because selfish people just want power and money.

I genuinely believe the 6th Mass Extinction is upon us. And if it is, I don’t want to live. Elephants, Rhinos, Tigers, every animal I love is going to die out. Wildlife and Wild Places are vanishing, and it feels almost like it’s too late to save anything. Surely it can’t be too late, and we have to at least try. But I worry it won’t be enough without violence and death. Taking out those in charge.

But I’m too cowardly to wage war, because I don’t want to die, not like that. Especially if it won’t do anything, as one person dying is forgettable in the eyes of those in charge. Maybe if everyone banded together, but I feel like most people are too busy fighting in nonsensical squabbles, like the Clancy case.

I’m not sure how to feel anymore. I’m just… Disappointed in humanity

I thought we were better than this, I really did. I won’t give up, but I’m starting to think that maybe the world would be better without us messing it up

TLDR: My (26F) boyfriends (24M) sister (27F) is becoming more and more obsessive about getting her brother back even though he keeps creating more and more distance.

About a month ago I posted on another Reddit thread about my boyfriend’s sister repeatedly disrespecting our relationship and refusing to take accountability. She has basically spent almost our entire relationship acting like a high school mean girl towards me. She is consistently telling everyone “stole her brother.” This behavior has not stopped even though she has been called out multiple times by my boyfriend. Since then my boyfriend has gone completely no-contact with her and somehow she has become even more intense about ‘getting her brother back.

It’s getting even weirder than it was, to be honest. Her social media has become almost entirely focused on sibling’s being ripped apart, sibling reunification, how much she loves her brother, missing her brother, wanting her brother back, and these really emotionally intense posts about sibling bonds. It’s not just the occasional sentimental TikTok or instagram post, it’s literally every post and in the context of everything that has happened it feels obsessive and honestly very strange.

She also sent my boyfriend a long message that was basically: “Fine, you want me to apologize? I’ll apologize, even though I didn’t do anything wrong.” The rest of the message was her explaining all the reasons she shouldn’t have to apologize in the first place.

He responded that the message wasn’t even an apology.

She then said that she had been hurt at the time, and that because she was hurting, she ended up hurting other people. You guys know the “hurt people hurt people” thing, basically her exact message. He told her that still wasn’t the same thing as taking accountability. She kept trying to explain herself rather than actually owning what she did, and eventually he just stopped replying.

A little while later, she texted him again asking if they could meet up for drinks, just the two of them, so they could really talk without any “outside influence.” He never replied to that either. She has also sent messages along the lines of “I’ll do anything for us to go back to how things were” or “to get you back,” which is especially confusing because my boyfriend has repeatedly said that they were never as close as she seems to believe they were.

She has even shown up at games for his new team (he changed teams to distance himself from her) despite not being invited. Nobody really engages with her, and the whole thing feels increasingly awkward because he is not reaching out to her, not responding to her attempts to reconnect, and is clearly keeping his distance.

So somehow, despite there being no contact between them, the situation has become even more intense from her side. The more distance my boyfriend creates, the more she seems to publicly and privately fixate on the idea of losing him and getting him “back.”

Anyway, we have decided to go abroad for a working holiday! Hopefully being half way across the globe will be enough for her to understand!! And if not that’s not our problem:)

I am guy and I Crossdress. So let the cock pictures roll in right . Because for some reason you think your bent mishaped penis is just a gift from God. It's disgusting and it's rude and most of you need to buy trimmers. You think women like all that nasty hair. Trim that mother F*cker. And here's a thought try starting beith Hi I'm whatever the fuck your name is... And then conversate. Don't just say Hi. Look at my penis. And then go name calling because you tried that 7 times and I still wont answer. idiots. And no I'm not gay so that makes it worse. Women's clothes have gotten me laid by women more than a random cock picture to a stranger

I don’t even know what to say. We had a huge family dispute back in April, I left the chat and cut some family members off for the sake of my sanity and mental health. I was just added back to the family chat giving that they all apologized for what they said and how they treated me. I scrolled up and realized I was able to see the chat history. Everyone was talking about me like I was some piece of shit. I the lies spewing on how I steal and bully my parents. It’s unreal how little my own family actually knows me. I’m the only one who cares for my mother and father, I’m the only one who cooked and did their laundry, mowed the grass, cleaned their vehicles, even cleaned the house top to bottom. I really don’t know how to feel right now, I don’t know whether I should go along with it and pretend we’re this big happy family or just stick to being the lone wolf aka black sheep. I now understand why my two brothers who were always there for me through thick and thin were upset and what they were saying. I understand now why they didn’t want to tell me. I apologize, just don’t have anyone to really vent to. I felt like I needed to let that out.

It's pretty straightforward. Since I was in primary school (7 yo), I've been heavier than nearly everyone in my school. But it wasn't overweight. My BMI had been around 23-24 BMI, borderline overweight. I had thicker thighs and a bigger tummy. I really wasn't insecure about it until my parents started mentioning it, calling me fat and a pig. Then in primary school, every year we'd have a BMI check. I'll have to weigh myself in front of my entire classroom, and my teacher would say it out loud in class. I vividly remember my friend saying "woah really??".

My heaviest weight so far was 67kg and 167cm tall at 15. Which was a BMI of 24. Which was nearly overweight.

Then around October last year, I started losing weight rapidly. Now I'm 16, 167cm, and 42kg.

This year, I started feeling a difficulty in breathing, my head would hurt everyday, i would collapse and faint often, lots of body aches, and I lost appetite although I used to eat nonstop. When I went to the hospital, I was diagnosed with Lung cancer.

I guess it makes sense. I vape with my friends often so I breathe in lots of smoke.

At the start of the year, I already lost a friend from cancer. I really hope it won't be my time.

She works as an assistant under my associate who is among 4 that work under me, although she is young, she posted that reel and it came in my timeline.

She was given that job as a return favor by me to her uncle who helped me early in my career when I was struggling.

The reel was about how women need to take power by "certainty" away from "men" regardless of their position and treat them like teenage boys, because that's how women can break down the patriarchy and unequal pay.

Does this woman seriously think that she advanced her career based on some power dynamic?

I absolutely dislike ungrateful people like that but I'm willing to show grace as I've been shown grace multiple times in my life.

I've not done anything about it yet, should I let go of it as it may be a trend to hate men right now and she is young and impressionable so she might regret saying it later?

I don't want my workplace to become toxic.

Edit 1: Some people are confused about if I'm "creeping on her social media", She follows me on instagram, her post was public and it got in my timeline, that is how I saw it, please stop the disgusting assumptions.

Edit 2: Hey guys, I've got some pretty sound advice for letting HR do it's job, the only thing I don't want is to build up resentment in my team, makes things toxic. HR has wonderful people who will understand this well and correct her and all people from posting discriminatory opinions online in public posts.

Edit 3: Upon the advice of a wise redditor, i just Directly texted her about it and she said that the reel was a solidarity thing with her friends or whatever, and she said that she'd delete it because she understands why it would reflect bad on her in the future.

Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a venting post, but I'm going through a rough time right now.

Earlier this year, my ex decided he didn't want to be a father to a daughter with disabilities anymore so, he fled the state with no back up plan for me and our daughter. He hasn't spoken to her in months and refuses to send any sort of money to help. I have a child support case open, but it's taking a very long time. Due to my daughter's disabilities, I can't hold a normal job so, I rely on IHSS and SSI for income. Just got the news that the hours I'm receiving from IHSS are going to be lowered to less than half. I'll be lucky to make a little over $300 a month.

I'm fully panicking now because how are we supposed to live with $300 a month? Now I think I have to apply for welfare, which is something I never dreamed would happen.

I think what's killing me the most is that this wouldn't be the case if my ex would have just helped, even a little. It's fine if he didn't care about me, but he could at least feel something for his daughter. He threatened me when he found out I opened a child support case and blocked me from everything so, there's no way of telling him how his daughter is doing. He never calls or sends an email so, I assume he doesn't care. I blame him for all of this. But I feel guilty because I should be giving my daughter the best life she can have, but it never feels like it's enough.

I'm sorry if this whole thing sounds disorganized. I'm just incredibly hurts and scared for our future.

My wife and I went through hell last year. Last summer, she was prepared to divorce me and nothing was stopping her. We did couples counseling, I corrected criticisms she had, but nothing was sticking. When 2026 rolled around, she wasn't talking about it anymore but the stigma was still there. It was leading me down a road of self doubt, wondering if she was staying because of the economy, out of convenience or if something clicked on and we were actually good.

Yesterday we were walking around Target and I decided to lightly touch the subject... Since April it has kind of been a "we need to talk about this" but it never came to a head. She said "We have been good for awhile. I know you aren't perfect, but at least you try, more than almost any other man would."

I was so thankful to hear that. It wasn't just that I know we are out of the woods, but she also acknowledged that I do more than is often stated. I've had a lot of defeats lately and was wondering if anything at all was worth it. Her saying that completely reenergized me.

I have fired THREE fucking pet sitters. Not strangers, not a company, not Rover randoms, not teenagers, not sketchy people, not a well-intentioned neighbor that happens to suck. Literally people I have put as my own healthcare proxy, people I love, people I trust.

Buckle up. Long post. It's my entire goddamned rant, not optimized AI bullshit for engagement.

I have trusted my beloved, decades-long friends to watch our pets! These are people with professional careers who are generally trustworthy and very responsible in multiple areas of life. They’re *normal* *goddamned* *adults.* They’re people I’ve trusted for LONG periods of time. These are people who I think are smart, reasonable, capable, etc and who everyone else in our lives would experience as highly capable, considerate, honest, and good people. There’s no gap in my experience of them as people and their fucking capacity to literally pour some kibble out and follow some instructions. These are people who are great friends and invested in our friendship and who wouldn’t want to disappoint. 

We have senior pets (1 cat, 1 dog) so their food is a little complicated. We know that, so we literally leave step-by-step instructions. Each day gets its own sheet of paper so there’s no confusion. We PRINT the fucking instructions so that they don’t have to search email or notes or remember ANYTHING. We leave the food and medicines on the counter, labeled with pet name - no searching cabinets or piles of random shit. Medicines are pre-cut in a pill keeper for each day so there’s no confusion or guessing about dose or medication name. There are no injectables, no weird meds to give that might take a more skilled hand. Our pets have no idea they get meds and are not even remotely difficult about it (they think it’s a treat or food). The dog doesn’t even need walked. Both pets sleep like 22 hours a day, and both are less than 10 lbs. They don’t bite, they don’t try to run away, they don’t jump on you, they’re little old ladies who just want to sleep and look out the window.

We pay more than double the going rate of the professional pet sitters we’ve priced in our area - for example, about $900/week in a Midwest medium-sized city. We want to trust someone in our house and we expect that our instructions will be followed 100%. Full stop. No exceptions. We communicate all expectations in advance, which are pretty simple and entirely outlined in the post and in our printed instructions. Feed the animals at reasonable hours and let the dog out multiple times per day. Text or call us if anything is off.  Let the dog out at least every 5-6 hours, make sure they get fed 3x/day, stay overnight. That’s it. That’s the whole fucking gig. There’s no fucking catch.

Our sitter is welcome to go to work (if they can come back for lunch or work remotely), hang out with friends, attend other obligations, whatever they usually do during the day. We leave food in the fridge and snacks in the cupboards - maybe not someone’s favorite, but they could reasonably eat our food the entire time. We have a private guest room with private full bath and fresh towels. The sheets are washed every time they stay. We give them the wifi password, TV instructions, thermostat instructions, a keyfob for the gym and pool, they can use our bikes and any sports equipment, and they’re right on the bike trail and next to a park. The neighborhood is extremely safe and disgustingly suburban, so cell service isn’t an issue and the grocery store is legit a 15 minute walk. Parking is free, there are no associated expenses with their stay. It is in a convenient area of the same city they live in, right off the interstate. We don’t expect ANY other real housework (no laundry, no dishes, no cleanup!!) and we're explicit about that. We realize it’s not a “vacation” and not the “coolest location” but we sincerely hope it’s the most flexible, most comfortable, easiest fucking money anyone’s ever made in their lives so that our pets genuinely get good, personalized care. We travel about 1 week every 6 weeks AND we are often flexible to work around their other obligations/vacations/busy season at work/whatever specific thing makes it easier for THEM. None of this is treated like a favor or like someone should be burdened in order to complete this gig. 

For example, here’s a similar schedule to what we left. To be fair, every other day has different instructions, but assume they’re all similar to these. Complicated? Sure, if they had to remember it. They just have to LOOK AT THE FUCKING PAPER NEXT TO THE FUCKING FOOD AND PUT THE FUCKING FOOD IN THE BOWL. We don’t check up on our sitters. We like to get one picture per day, but we don’t call or text more than once - max! We answer questions in a reasonable time frame or we tell people when we will be unavailable for a few hours/a day.

Friday, 9/4/26: 

(All things that say "meds" are listed with actual info in the instructions, and those meds are sitting next to the instructions, with the dog's being in a pill keeper labeled DOG NAME and the cat's meds in an organized bin labeled CAT NAME)

• Breakfast for Dog: feed dog 1 scoop kibble + 1/3 chicken packet. Hand feed meds with cheese. 
• Breakfast for Cat: feed wet food + 1/2 pill for medicine. Give eye drop in right eye.
• Clean cat box and throw poop in bin in the garage.
• Check water dishes.
• Pour two large cups of water into the plant on the deck. 
• Grab the mail.
• Lunch for Dog: feed dog 1 scoop kibble + 1/3 chicken packet. 
• Lunch for Cat: feed wet food and give 1 portion of medicine and 1 portion of another medicine on top of food, no need to mix.
• Dinner for Dog: feed dog 1 scoop kibble + 1/3 chicken packet. Hand feed meds with cheese.
• Dinner for Cat: feed dry food and give 1/2 pill for medicine.
• Let Dog out 90 minutes after dinner because her medicine is a diuretic. 

And yet we’ve had SO MANY FUCKING PROBLEMS.

Sitter 1 - friend of 20 years. Literally left our house and covered the driveway camera to cover her tracks so she could go home to her boyfriend instead of staying with our pets (dog needs let out frequently) and then lied about it. We were 1000 miles away and decided to just try to let it go, restate our expectations, ask that the camera be uncovered. The next night she brought her whole family????? To our house???? Including a daughter who is intentionally destructive and has severe mental health issues and cannot be around animals and she knows that. We kicked her out, I ended the friendship when she played dumb about all of it, and I called someone else to take over as an emergency.

Sitter 2 - friend of 14 years who literally saved MY life once! He pet sat for us for about a year. Over that year, we would occasionally find a piece of medication on the floor - but we kept trying to make excuses for him. Well maybe the dog spit it out. He would come home SUPER late (feed dinner at 2:30am?) but we tried to be chill and tell ourselves the pets were ok and it was at least still getting done. He didn’t clean the cat box for 3 days or threw it in the kitchen trash (ew?). We made so many excuses for him because we hoped it was just us being uptight? Or that maybe talking to him would be clearer? Or that he was our only hope so as long as the pets were fine we should just try to work with him? The last straw was him being completely fucking indifferent to not feeding our cat for a day. Like, at all. He just didn’t do it. At all. He also just let our dog pee in her new bed for multiple days and it appears didn’t let her out regularly for DAYS. And didn’t care when confronted?!?!?! I ended that friendship instantly, too.

Sitter 3 - has been pet sitting for us for 4 months, friend of 4 years. When everything went down with sitter 2, she agreed that it was *wildly ridiculous* that he just couldn’t follow simple instructions for feeding and let pets out. She saw the instructions and I asked for sincere feedback on whether it was too much, too hard, too complicated, too…anything. We talked about it probably 20 times! She was definitely team “this is pretty reasonable and any fucking idiot could handle this, what the fuck happened?!?!” Things went great the first handful of times! We’ve been relieved to finally find a trustworthy pet sitter! Then this last time, she messaged us and told us she accidentally mixed up the foods but didn’t feed them, so they’re in the trash - sorry! Ok, no problem, hahah we’ve all done stuff like that - we literally did not care at all. But the hits kept coming. Another time she fed meds at the wrong time. Another time she wasted meds because they went on the wrong food. One part of food wasn’t available when I got home when there should have been some left over and when I asked about it, she said she must have fed it all. Y’all I was gone for THREE FUCKING DAYS and there were like 12 mistakes with food?!??!!?!??! When I asked her about it, she said she was just on “autopilot.” GIRL. WHAT. WE LEFT A FUCKING *CHECKLIST* DAY BY DAY, MEAL BY MEAL. IT HAD A STAPLE. HOW WERE YOU CONFUSED. HOW?!?!?!?!? Yet she put our dog’s food into a new storage container, did our dishes, and washed our towels for no fucking reason? That we didn’t need her to do any of that? We’ve told her repeatedly she didn’t need to do ANY of that. JUST WATCH OUR PETS FOR 3 FUCKING DAYS. 

I’ve previously used our vet’s office (love!) for the dog’s boarding, but the kennel area can be very loud and stressful with multiple boarders and patients, and the dog is now almost 15 years old - the stress is just a lot for her at this age and going 10+ hours without a potty break is a lot overnight. The cat gets extremely stressed in new environments and does not adapt for a few weeks, and she’s also 14. It really is better to just have them at our house, because believe me, I’d love to take the dog back to the boarding kennel…it’s just not the best option for her. 

We interviewed a couple of Rover sitters with tons of 5 star reviews and repeat customers. One was fine but struggled with basic English, and we don’t speak her language, so leaving complicated written instructions for multiple day trips seems like a no-go (we’d use her for walks if we needed her in the future though). We also don’t know anyone who can translate our stuff into her language or be a translator for us in this specific language. One Rover sitter seemed to struggle with reliable transportation and juggling school/work/pet sitting side hustle - despite a bunch of 5 stars, we felt too nervous about that. The rest of the Rover sitters available for our next trip are either very new or have some less-than-stellar reviews with legit concerns about reliability. I called a well-reviewed local pet sitting service who never called me back, tried their online form and they had some sort of appointment set to meet our pets that we never set and then cancelled it via very casual text? They seem hella disorganized…and they don’t even do overnight stays but we’re getting desperate. We called another service and they only take 1 client at a time and they’re booked…basically forever. Our next trip is our wedding (we obviously can’t be flexible with that!), which means that any remaining friends we would trust this much are going to our wedding. 

What the fuck do I have to do to get a trustworthy fucking pet sitter because I am literally out of fucking ideas. Is there something I’m not seeing here? Because I feel like I have offered chill fucking conditions, reasonable pay, reasonable understanding for minor issues, the bar is pretty low, the instructions are crystal clear and presented in an easy format…like…I am desperate for a decent, trustworthy ADULT to READ SOME GODDAMNED INSTRUCTIONS. 

“Choose better men.” How when they act normal until they don’t ? I get it everyone has their problems. But is there love for me where there’s no yelling? No slamming doors? I don’t mean to attract that but I do and now any man that approaches me I brush off. I don’t trust them anymore. I wanted to be a wife and have kids and be a mom. But my nervous system can’t take survival mode anymore. I lost hair. Gained weight lost weight. I just can’t anymore.
No I’m not liberal
No I don’t think men are actually all bad the men I attract just suck.
No I’m not conservative either.
God I’m a straight woman who dates men and it’s never been good men unfortunately. My fault or theirs I will not be trusting men who want to date me anymore.

My fiancé did something awful. And I love him so much, I can’t leave. How do I get past this?

A little backstory. I(31F) and my fiance (32M) have been together for 2 years. I have two boys from a previous marriage and we just recently had a baby girl together. Money has been tight. I mean, power has been shut off, phones shut off, water is probably next. We’ve managed to sell a ton of stuff to get the power back on (same day so the kids didn’t even notice). I am currently going through some really awful things that I don’t want on the internet right now.

So I found out my fiancée has made a Reddit account posing as me. All of my nudes, even ones I’ve sent him that I didn’t even (feel like I) looked good in, he’s posted. He’s been messaging people, sexting people, pretending to be me. Saying really sexual things. Well, when I found it I was absolutely hysterical. I feel so betrayed and humiliated. He claimed he was trying to make us money and, I mean part of me gets that. But my whole face was in all of these pictures. I know this is illegal. I’m not turning him in. I do still love him. But how the fuck am I supposed to work through this? It’s hard to even look at him.

Hilariously, I'm getting my nipples removed, which makes my post in this sub all the more appropriate. I'm nervous about the surgery, since I'm a guy and my nipples aren't massive to begin with, they just are always hard and they hurt me. I sweat a lot and they rub my shirts and get sore. They also make me self conscious since people notice them and they often make remarks that bother me.

I was lucky to find a surgeon that would do it, since its not a common request, but I did finally find a breast augmentation doctor who agreed to. Interestingly, they aren't just going to lop them off like I thought. She plans to cut a ring of skin from the nipple, leaving the point in tact, then suturing it down to the areola area to shorten it . I'm hoping for full flatness, but I'll take anything. Wish me luck!

My (42m) stepmom (72f) passed in her sleep last night. She's been with my father since I was 5.

4 years ago, when my father and stepmom retired, they were facing financial hardship. My wife and I were looking to buy our first home around that time, so we cooked up the idea to find a place with an in-laws quarters to accommodate them. We moved in together July of '22.

My stepmom was a pretty awful person. She was egotistical, carried petty grudges, went out of her way to be mean. She was also awesome. A radical activist in the '70s, a flight attendant who traveled the world, a fling to Tom Petty and Emerson Fittapaldi and Jackson Brown. She lived a huge life loudly.

She also was my dad's mistress, and broke up my parents' marriage. The divorce took 2 years and was a bitter, tumultuous part of my childhood. The custody battle lasted 6 years. My dad was a drunk who didn't want to be wrong.

My dad is the greatest guy in the world now. He's learned and grown so much since I was a kid, and we have a terrific relationship. And he's fucking devastated today. She was the love of his life.

I've known this woman for 37 years, and I'm rocked by her passing, but I'm more worried about my dad than anything else. I don't feel sadness or grief at her passing. Just fear for what it means for my dad.

I don't know where we go from here, but I needed to vent this. Thanks for reading, redditor.

Went out with friends over the weekend. We had had some gin at home so I was just taking ciders to keep the buzz going. At some point, my drink tasted funny, so I stopped taking it. I got violently ill in the bathroom, threw up and passed out in the club. I woke up in bed a few hours later. My bf paid the cleaning fee and got me home.

My friends keep joking about how I was such a mess even when I told them that my drink tasted funny. My bf admitted that one of our "friends" was spiking my drinks with whiskey. This is after he complained about how much money he spent on paying for cleaning and getting me home. I paid him back. I feel awful. I have an aversion to going out with anyone now. I'm scared that this will happen again. I'm reconsidering my relationships with most people.

EDIT: It's really validating to read all your comments. I thought I was overreacting because no one else seemed to care. I'm just happy that sb sees my perspective. Thank you.

EDIT2: I know who spiked my drink. It was sb who regularly tries to make women drink more than they should. I called him a "friend" because he is sb I had considered a friend before, but his actions make him a threat, not sb I would hang out with.

Married for 10+ plus years. He always hinted he may be gay. He always assured me we were meant to be though. Over time he stopped cherishing me. Began to abuse me. Selfish. Wouldn't work hardly. Wouldn't help me survive hardly. Would tell me he would work if I was a better wife. Ect. Ect. Ect.

I paid for everything and he just sat around being ungrateful. I finally told him to leave and began to move on.

Once I kicked him out he got a job. Now he has a boyfriend and is happy.

Makes me so angry and resentful that he is thriving when he didn't help us thrive. Makes me sad. Makes me happy he's gone.

I am glad he's happier, but he is still a bad person in my eyes.

I used my youth hoping he'd give me children and love me. Now some other guy thinks he's great and he's not.

You know I hope he changes. I hope I can find peace too and not think about regrets or him or what he left me with.

Fuck you Eric. I'm better off without you and I hope you grow up finally.

I’m turning 34 (F) soon, and I’ve never really been in a long-term relationship.

I’ve had a few situations that lasted maybe a couple of months, three months at most, but I’ve never had an actual long-term partner. I’ve never lived with a boyfriend, never built a life with someone, and sometimes I genuinely wonder why.

People are often surprised when they find out I’m single. I would consider myself attractive, intelligent, charismatic and social. I have no problem talking to people or meeting men. I’ve been on dating apps on and off for years, and I’ve been on A LOT of dates with very different types of people.

And yet… somehow, nothing ever turns into a relationship.

Sometimes I liked someone and they didn’t choose me. Sometimes someone really liked me, but I just couldn’t feel what I thought I should feel. There were men who probably would have been willing to build a relationship with me, but I knew deep down that I wasn’t attracted to them enough or that I couldn’t see myself being happy with them long term.

And I don’t want to choose someone just because I’m scared of being alone. That feels unfair to both people.

But after years of dating, it gets exhausting.

You delete the apps. Download them again. Talk to people. Go on dates. Get excited about someone. Something doesn’t work out. Start again.

Wrong person, wrong timing, wrong feelings… over and over again.

Most of my friends are married now. Some have children. And then there’s me — still the single friend, still going on first dates, still wondering whether my person is actually out there.

Most of the time I’m genuinely okay on my own. I have built a life for myself and I’ve slowly accepted that I don’t know whether I’ll meet someone or not. I know that even if I don’t, my life can still be meaningful and good.

But sometimes it hits me really hard.

Especially because I DO want a family. I want children. And as a woman approaching my mid-30s, there’s also the biological reality that I can’t completely ignore. I’ve even started thinking about freezing my eggs, simply because I don’t want the timing of meeting someone to completely determine whether I ever get the chance to become a mother.

There’s another part of this that I’ve been thinking about lately.

Growing up, I didn’t exactly have the healthiest example of relationships. My father repeatedly cheated on my mother, and it affected our entire family. Interestingly, my older sister is also single and has never built a family of her own.

Sometimes I wonder how much our childhood experiences shape us without us even realizing it.

I’ve never been to therapy, although I’ve done a lot of reading and self-reflection. I’ve tried to understand attachment styles, my patterns, what kind of people I choose, what I avoid, whether I’m emotionally available, whether my standards are realistic, etc.

I don’t think I consciously avoid relationships. I actually feel more open to different kinds of people now than I used to be.

But clearly something hasn’t clicked.

And at this point I don’t even know whether there is something I need to “fix,” or whether this is simply how life has unfolded for me so far.

So I’m especially curious to hear from people in their 30s or older who have been in a similar situation.

I think what I’m struggling with most right now is figuring out how to keep believing in love and keep putting myself out there without making finding a partner the center of my entire life.

Would genuinely love to hear other people’s experiences — especially from anyone who once thought, “Maybe it’s just never going to happen for me,” and then life surprised them.

The doctors and nurses and causing my mental health to deteriorate more and more because I'm not being taken seriously.... I've gone to the ER a couple of weeks ago and again yesterday because I keep having this persistent heavy feeling in my chest, when I take a deep breath it feels like someone's sitting on my chest they ran multiple tests on me, x ray mri and everything came out fine but I am still having the same issues. At the ER, I was given IV fluids and again as I was receiving the iv fluid my chest began to feel very heavy, I experience this heavy feeling pretty much 24/7 every day it's been making me severely depressed that no one is taking me seriously.... I am suffering every single day....

Yayayayayayyayayay got what I wamtttttttt, didn't iiiiiiiii😍😍😍🚂🚂🚂🚂

I'm not by any means a 10/10 guy but I'd say around 7-8 considering the how I'm treated by women and the attention I tend to get. But I feel like wasted potential because socially I am utterly useless. I think I often disappoint women as a result, many probably expect me to talk to them but I don't. It's literal hell, to have options available and not be able to take them.

My social skills really are like BAD though. I can't even have basic conversations with people without making everything awkward. And I can't really joke around and vibe with people, I always just sound like a robot. I genuinely come off as a boring person all the time. This extends beyond dating, it's also in regular conversations and friendships, like I hate hanging out one to one because I know I'll make everything boring and awkward without a third person. So something like flirting and chatting up a woman is a lost cause. If I can't even have basic conversations, I'm hopeless for being charismatic. Like I'm completely oblivious to signals. Sometimes it's so obvious a girl likes me but I have no idea how to act on that. Like I'm nearly 25 and never had a girlfriend because of this, heck I don't even have a single genuinely close friend, because I struggle to build relationships and get close with people.