“I Call Him My Man Child”

I was amidst a couple women that got together and started talking about relationships. One of the women that I knew was 24 years old. She said this about her boyfriend, “I call him my man child” in a joking way.

Women want men who are mature and able to handle themselves, but there are varying levels of immaturity that may be revealed “behind the curtain” of their public personas. Being left with a man that hasn’t been fully developed maturely can range from hearing continual everyday complaints to feeling like you are taking on personal issues and problems from him that he cannot solve. It can feel taxing on you when your partner keeps piling problems and issues on you that make you feel like you are supposed to handle them when you may not even be able to handle your own.

Trying to fix issues and problems that a partner has is unhealthy. This creates an unhealthy dependency that makes your partner come to you whenever things go wrong.

At a high maturity level, there are two functioning healthy adults in a relationship. When help is needed, one of the partners should ask for help when it is needed, but does not automatically expect the other person to figure it out. Love means support, but that doesn’t mean rescuing someone from their own battles all of the time.