Whose Fault is it Anyway?

Certain slip ups in a partnership should never be blamed on the other person. If your girlfriend/boyfriend cheats on you, and you were in a committed relationship with the reasonable expectation of fidelity, then fuck ‘em, you didn’t ask for that. And yes girlfriend, I mean you. Even though you want to blame your boyfriend because he’s really mean to you and bad for your self-esteem and you met some who made you feel sexy and good about your self and one thing led to another and blah, blah, blah. The reality is that you should be a grown-up and dump your jerk-off boyfriend so you can find some real happiness. Don’t try to live on the fence.
But I’m not really talking about relationship felonies here. What about the misdemeanors? How you said you always wanted to marry a man who opened your car door for you? But the guy you’ve been dating for 3 months only touches the passenger door of the car when he actually IS the passenger. You don’t want to date a smoker, and guess what? Your cute boyfriend with the nice peter? He smokes. You want a considerate partner who respects your opinion? But your guy doesn’t think twice about blowing off your opinion and calling if he’s late? You brought it up once and he laughed it off in a very “you’re not my mother” fashion.
I’m all for compromise, deciding which priorities you want to give up to get what you want. If he’s a great guy in most other respects, you might want to let the whole car door thing go. Or maybe that's just one thing on a list of dream guy qualities that he’s missing. Only you know for sure. Deciding to stay in a relationship is a choice you can make for yourself at anytime. If you’re constantly asking yourself why your guy doesn’t make you happy, maybe you’re considering the wrong dilemma.
Years down the road, as you look back on a relationship with a man that “made you really unhappy” or maybe even a string of bad break ups, you might want to stop and ask yourself, “Whose fault was it anyway?”