I feel this so much. The first thing that comes to his mind is how she is useful to him. Nothing individual, emotional or personal about her, not even in the way he phrases it:
Not "I love her beautiful smile", "How she always helps people in need", "Her intelligence", "Her sense of humor" or whatever. He is asked how he fell in love and his answer is "Well, she cleaned up after me, so..."
Is "if she can love me like this she will love me forever" code for "if she loves me knowing I live like a rat I'll never have to do much and I'll be able to get away with not being a functional adult for the rest of my life"?
Yep, been there, done that big time with first husband. I was 20something, a pickme in a walking dream state, thinking if I did wifey shit for him esp after I'd moved in and we lived together (UGH), he'd propose. He did propose, finally, in the shittiest, most offhand way possible, and I still accepted. Still cringe about that to this day, and that was in the 90s! I think most of us have been there, so live and learn, but always remember that shame and disappointment and learn from it.
My solution was extreme: I simply stopped doing all wifey shit for him as a wife! The house stank, and it was a total Pyrrhic victory, but OMG worth it. He was controlling I now believe out of anxiety, but I'll be damned if I was ever controlled. He managed to keep his house tidy enough before me, but just never lifted a finger, and never talked to me about anything even after it got bad. So many lessons there.
Imagine what she could do if she just spent all that energy and time and money on herself.
Whenever I see something like this, I hear in my head the theme for MADtv's "lowered expectations" skit.
She thinks it's flattering that he's saying likes her because she's a free servant who fell into his lap 🤦♀
Telling that that's the first thing that comes to his mind.
Does he like anything about her, anything at all, that doesn't involve free services he can get from her?
Is "if she can love me like this she will love me forever" code for "if she loves me knowing I live like a rat I'll never have to do much and I'll be able to get away with not being a functional adult for the rest of my life"?
Yep, been there, done that big time with first husband. I was 20something, a pickme in a walking dream state, thinking if I did wifey shit for him esp after I'd moved in and we lived together (UGH), he'd propose. He did propose, finally, in the shittiest, most offhand way possible, and I still accepted. Still cringe about that to this day, and that was in the 90s! I think most of us have been there, so live and learn, but always remember that shame and disappointment and learn from it.
My solution was extreme: I simply stopped doing all wifey shit for him as a wife! The house stank, and it was a total Pyrrhic victory, but OMG worth it. He was controlling I now believe out of anxiety, but I'll be damned if I was ever controlled. He managed to keep his house tidy enough before me, but just never lifted a finger, and never talked to me about anything even after it got bad. So many lessons there.
The only things he likes about her is that she has no standards or expectations for him
So he loves her bc she… loved him at his worst? Big yikes.
How embarrassing for her.
Please tell me she was dragged in the comments lol
OMG and after all of that, you receive this. There is that #toxicshamelessness
Holy crap and I thought I was a pickme. What if she got scabies cleaning his pigsty..?