Good day everyone, 39M here currently in an early-stage relationship with a 31F, and we’re experiencing some growth pains. We are currently trying to level-up our relationship by evaluating it from a short-term living-together arrangement. However, we are polar opposites when it comes to personality types e.g. I’m an extreme Type A and she is an extreme Type B. Generally, I don’t have a problem with personality differences but when it comes to something as personal as a romantic relationship it does pose a number of challenges.

Right now, she is on a career break to which I proposed we should try out living together for a bit to determine the long-term viability of our relationship. Romantically, we are an ok’ish match, definitely not great we but get along well and enjoy spending time together when all the “adulting” is out of the way, more about that below. However, when it comes to day-to-day lifestyle, we are frustrating the hell out of each other. When we decided on trying this out, I walked her through my usual agenda which covers basics like nutrition, exercise, sleep schedule, lifestyle habits, living environment, upkeep etc. She agreed these were healthy efforts and she shares these with me. As a Type A personality, these things are super important to me, and I worked hard to establish a strong discipline from planning to execution and ultimately to be consistent in my efforts. I like to do stuff right the first time so that I don’t need to spend more time doing it again later, especially for basics like putting dirty laundry in the basket, packing dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher instead of piling it up all over the house etc. I keep a tight handle on these day-to-day basics because when it’s constantly maintained, it is actually fairly low effort and frees up a lot of time for more valuable ventures like hobbies and recreational activities.

Some of my most intense frustrations living with her includes maintaining a healthy diet and exercise schedule which is a big deal for me because I deal with some mental health challenges that requires these things be in place and consistently reinforced. I still allow myself one day per week to pig out but for the rest I keep it clean on diet, walking, running, exercising almost every day. To her it’s more of an optional extra to do these things, and she would rather spend hours on social media or watching Netflix etc. While she is wasting away most of her day on watching television and/or social media, I frantically run around to keep things going at home e.g. cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping, while trying to maintain a productive 9 to 5 job. She goes to bed late, at least as late as 00:00 in the night and then sleeps until 10:00 in the mornings. Naturally, I also frustrate her by being so meticulous about everything around my day-to-day lifestyle to the point where I suspect she intentionally does less and less as a test to see how far she can push it. As I write this post, I’m already planning what chore to pick-up next because if I don’t tackle these things during the week, then this upcoming weekend will be the third weekend we would spend at home while I’m cleaning, shopping and cooking, instead of being out and about doing something fun.

Over the years I have learned to apply some patience with these things, and not just act on instinct by calling it off at the first sight of something not-so-great. However, I feel the things outlined above are basic life-skills that any adult should have mastered by at least mid-twenties. Also, I do not want to be the parent teaching these basic life-skills to someone else because I have been down this road before and ultimately, it’s a very personal choice every person should make by themselves e.g. each to their own. If someone really wants to be an independent functional adult, they will master these things by themselves and not require another adult to tell them that they should wash/pack away the dishes, laundry, healthy eating, shopping, exercise etc. I have on numerous occasions made it clear that these things are important to me, and also WHY it’s important to me but it feels like it was treated in an attitude of “ok, nice story” and not really taken to heart. At the same time, I’m also trying to give her the time and space to consume my lifestyle, allowing her to join in at her own pace and avoid being prescriptive of what, how and when… I’m concerned that we will not reach that point without me actually instructing her explicitly which is something I really want to avoid. I don’t want a subordinate who I need to constantly give instructions to but rather a partner who shares my way of life and runs with me naturally.

I have heaps more to share about this situation but trying to keep the post as short as possible. Given the information above, would it be unreasonable to call off the relationship after only a short period of time?

TL;DR! 39M & 31F in a relationship for a few months, trying out living-together to review the long-term viability of our relationship. Our personalities are very different (Type A & B) which makes our daily lifestyle challenging and ultimately frustrating each other a lot. We frustrate each other with things like nutrition, exercise, lifestyle upkeep, what we spend our time on etc. Will I be unreasonable by calling it a day for the sake of both of us?

1 comment
  1. >Right now, she is on a career break to which I proposed we should try out living together for a bit to determine the long-term viability of our relationship

    I think this is a bad way to start things off, because a career break is, well, a break isn’t it? It’s not the normal day to day life. And if you have no responsibilities to worry about, or work dramas, or deadlines, and things are still this awful, how bad are they going to get when she does actually have other concerns and priorities?!

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