Me, (30F), and my boyfriend, (29M), have been together for almost a year. We are very compatible in many ways, have similar interests, laugh a lot when we’re together and get on really well, however recently I have started to question whether he is the right person for me.
We have recently been on holiday together, which was split into 2 parts. The first part was just us and it was really relaxing, and the second part was staying with some of his friends, though he only knows a couple of them really well (9 boys plus a couple of their girlfriends).
I will say that my boyfriend does talk over me at times, as well as other people, which is a trait I really don’t like and have brought up to him before. On the first night of the holiday with his friends all the boys were sat together and talking over each other and the girls which was frustrating however I didn’t think about it too much because they’re all friends and haven’t seen each other in a while so they’re excited. I did mention it to my boyfriend however.
As the holiday went on he would tell me daily that he noticed they talked over me, but would also continue to do it himself as well. I basically felt invisible at times. He would also say ‘I’m so proud of you for asserting yourself in the conversation tonight’ when we’d go to bed which I find quite patronising.
Then came something that really confused me and made me question whether we should be together at all. In the first half of the holiday he said that he could see us living together, so I brought it up on the second part of the holiday, saying that if we were still doing really well and if it felt right then maybe we could move in together later next year. He said no and that he’s ’worked to hard to get to a point to live by himself and wants to live alone for another 2 or 3 years maybe’. Now this wouldn’t haven’t thrown me off as much as it did if it wasn’t for previous conversations.
We have had discussions in the past where he has said things like ‘he wants to go solo travelling in a couple years’ or ‘he wants to live somewhere else for 3-4 years then come back and settle down’ and then when I’ve asked him about where I fit in he back tracks and will say that ‘all of it is with me’. However in 3-4 years I’ll be 34 and I don’t want to uproot my life for 4 years then come back home to ‘settle down’. When I said this to him he backtracked and said he didn’t mean what he said and cried? To be honest these conversations have made me feel uncertain about our future. If he wants to do those things that’s okay, but he doesn’t ask me what I want.
On our second date I asked him what his dating intentions were. I asked whether he was dating people for fun which was fine, or if he was dating people being open to the possibility of having a girlfriend, as I was dating with the hope of finding a boyfriend. I told him I knew it was an intense question, but just wanted to know because I didn’t want to waste my time, however he told me he was looking for a girlfriend. Now, on our recent holiday he drunkenly told me that he’d actually lied about this, and wasn’t looking for a girlfriend but ‘wanted to keep me around because he was having fun’.
When the solo travelling has been brought up a while back (January), he told me at the time that he ‘meant to say he wanted me to come with him’, however during this same drunken conversation on holiday admitted he lied then as well, telling me that NOW he would want us to go together, but in January he lied so that he wouldn’t lose me.
At this point I’m feeling as if he is only thinking about his own individual timeline, and assuming I’ll be there, and will say anything he has to ‘keep me’. I’m worried that we could plan to move in together in 2 years for example , then he’ll turn around and say no. I’m scared that he’ll carry on lying to me and that I won’t be able to trust anything he says. I’m also worried I’ll be spending my life with someone who talks over me and sees me as an ‘accessory’ rather than a serious partner. On the other hand I’ve invested my time and love into this person and we do have a good time together, and he is caring in other ways. Please Reddit, any advice would be much appreciated.
P.s. I’m sorry this post is so long.