Home→Forums→Relationships→Regretting breaking up with my ex
- This topic has 10 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 4 months ago by
Jordan.
-
AuthorPosts
-
May 18, 2016 at 11:09 am #104908
Jordan
ParticipantHello. My name is Jordan. I am 25. This is a bit of a hard story to explain fully. Try and follow. Back in December I initiated a break-up with my ex who is also a Mom and is now 28. We had been together for two years and lived with eachother. I had never had a connection with someone like her before. Her and I had very similar knowledge in terms of our interests. We were both nerds and gamers of sorts. Big movie buffs as well. I had never met anyone who fit my interests and who was so gorgeous to me at the same time. I loved her personality, her laugh, the way she talked, etc. I adored her son as well. I had a lot of fun with him. The biggest problem was that we both had different ideas of what clean and organized met. Her version was more cluttered and dusty than my own. She also brought a dog into the mix and in my opinion didn’t train it rather properly. More so taught it to pee and poop outside, other than that she would just let its personality flourish. It was a very hyper and crazy dog. She didn’t walk it much or anything. We were living in a townhouse with a terrible backyard so we couldn’t exactly let it out to roam around. During our relationship there was just more and more building up that stressed me out. Things like the dogs behavior. It would put its paws on people a lot (which is a sign of dominance) and would almost claw her son in the eye a few times. There was just a lot of hectic struggle in this relationships that I couldn’t handle. It certainly affected my mood. I struggle with ADD to a certain extent in which my ex very understanding of and her family. I loved her family as well even though they lived a bit of a cluttered lifestyle as well. It’s hard for me to explain every detail of my entire situation because there is so much but I will go back to the break up now.
So, in December I was working for a company that made canoes. I felt really good with where I was at and started to gain some confidence after not being employed for quite some time after a back injury I sustained. While working there I would often think about where I was at, what I was doing with my life. The work that goes into having a child was also stressing me out. I came home from work one day and initiated the conversation with my ex that things were not feeling right and that perhaps we should break up. She had also agreed that it wasn’t feeling quite right. From there I started to sleep in the basement and we would check in with each other every few weeks to see if it still felt right. I personally felt relieved of the responsibilities. A few more weeks went by and stupidly started seeing someone else. I even stupidly told my ex about it to which she said she was fine with it. Turns out it actually hurt her a bit. Silly me. Time went on and things were going alright. One night I had a conversation with my ex about her situation. I had made her aware that a good friend she has had for years might be a good choice for her. They both had the same standards in cleanliness, dogs, raising kids, etc. Long story short, as soon as I found out she actually had gone and initiated a relationship with I went into panic mode. I started seeing the error of my ways and realized that she wasn’t so much cluttered as I was not helping the situation as much as I could have. We didn’t communicate the very best. I made a few failed attempts at getting her back. Shortly into February, the pain was too much so I moved out and lived with my Grandma for a few months until now I am moved into my own apartment and just taking care of myself.
I have been overly burdened with hindsight of what I could have or should have done in my relationship. I wasn’t the most prone to action as I wasn’t exactly fully educated in what two people do for each other when they love someone. I am now on my own and she is content with her new life. We have cut off all communication. The hardest part of all this is that I can’t seem to let her go. I want everything about her back in life and I know I could handle it with my new found knowledge of what I could have done. I am in pain every day and I feel like I will never be attracted to or want someone else again. I know I am young, but social opportunities are closing more and more everyday with how busy things get. I am so lost and regretful of what I have done and really don’t want to hold onto this forever but I can’t stop thinking about her and wanting all of it back. The single world scares me although a lot of people I know tell me I have nothing to worry about. I can’t imagine my life with anyone else now and to put it simply, this whole thing really, REALLY, sucks. There is more detail to all of this really that can’t even muster to talk all about it. I am desperate for advice or just talking so I have come to this site.
Thank you for any replies.
May 18, 2016 at 7:39 pm #104978Anonymous
GuestDear bishop25:
You sounded reasonable through most of your post. I understand your distress living with the dog and with the clutter. You thought about things, about not wanting to parent her child, lived in the basement for a long while, checking in with her, suggested she dates someone else, and then out of nowhere, regret.
I am trying to understand the change in you from being clear about not wanting life with her, for reasons I can understand to the to this drastic change.
Let me know if I understand your thinking now:
Are you are thinking now that it was your fault that the place was cluttered because you didn’t help clean or put things in their place? Was it you all along that cluttered the place while she, her child and the dog were tidy?
Are you also thinking now that you are okay with living with her dog, a mostly undisciplined dog? Do you thinks you will feel okay with that dog in the house? How?
And how did you change your feelings about being a parent figure to her child?
anita
May 19, 2016 at 7:53 am #105030Jordan
ParticipantHi Anita,
No, I’m not thinking it was my fault for the place being cluttered. What I have realized is that I could have dealt with it differently rather than leave it lie. I could have sat down with her one day and had a calm, collected conversation about getting things more organized and less cluttered looking rather than criticize. To the same extent, from the entire house being in shambles kind of debilitated me from wanting to take action. It was certainly not me that cluttered the place, it was like that before I even moved in. However, some of the cluttered and disorganized tendencies did transfer over to me in some areas of my life.
I am also thinking that yes, I would be okay with living with the dog. Perhaps communicating about a mutually agreed upon training method.
As far as the child goes, it seemed to me that she was mostly raising him on TV and video games. There were other things. Again, I did not communicate or initiate a conversation with my concerns.
All of my current feelings are coming from a place of hindsight. A place where I now know what to do if she were to call me tomorrow and want to get back together. Another problem is that I was in a full infatuation with her which I mistook for love. Mainly because I wasn’t educated in what love is or how to treat it. With everything that I have learned now, I am fully confident that it could work. However, it is too late.
It is very heart wrenching because I have never had a connection with someone like that before who understood me and accepted my imperfections as well as had similar plans of what we both wanted in our future. Not to mention her beauty, kindness, selflessness, and ability to inspire me.
In the end I was just getting so anxious and debilitated with the entire situation. I would get anxiety about the child getting hurt, etc.
I was very lost at the time.
May 19, 2016 at 8:40 am #105041Anonymous
GuestDear bishop25:
Your last sentence was; “I was very lost at the time.” From reading your original post and the latest one, it seems to me that you are currently lost. And that then you had some clarity.
It is a good skill and practice to sit with the person and talk about what bothers you, the clutter, the dog, her not attending to her own son, and … talk, instead of just criticize, sure.
You wrote that you “weren’t educated in what love is… With everything I have learned now, I am fully confident that it could work.”
By “it could work” – if you mean that you can tolerate a cluttered home, with an undisciplined dog and with her son being brought up by TV and computer games, then it could work for you.
She was not likely to change these habits and practices of hers because of the conversations you would have with her.
So for it to work out, a relationship with her, you would have to either tolerate these things or get very busy organizing the home for hours every day, seeing it get cluttered by her, the dog, the son, and work more organizing, every day, day after day, year after year. And you would have to discipline the dog yourself so to improve his behavior. And you would have to engage her son in activities other than TV and games (the latter would be very difficult because these are very addictive).
So, where you lost then, when you distanced yourself from this relationship or are you lost now, being lonely and scared of being alone forever?
anita
May 19, 2016 at 10:15 am #105054Jordan
ParticipantDear Anita,
The thing is that since I have left the situation some improvments have been made. The child now has to earn TV time and things like that. Some areas of the house are more tidier and clean. A big problem I had was having unrealistic expectations because my Mother was a stay at home Mom who kept our house in a very immaculate state. I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time where as now I feel I am.
The biggest problem was improper communication and I see that now. I am so regretful and miss the relationship very much. Statistically speaking I know I can’t forever be alone. All of my relationships have come about naturally in my day to day life, never through a dating site or other methods. I know that I will find someone else. I just don’t want to let this one go because of how amazing she is. I try my best not to hold on to the painful hope that maybe I could get back together with her in the future just to potentially be disappointed. We also rushed this relationship a bit. Didn’t take time to bond or really get to know each other. That played another big role in this down fall. We sort of got to know each other along the way instead of having conversations about who we are and emotionally connecting to one another.
I am sure I am dealing with a lot of jealousy as well. She has her ideal life at this point and she is content. I feel I have gone backwards in some of the biggest and simplest ways. I’m in a one bedroom apartment living on my own for the first time in my life. I no longer have a backyard with a bbq, I no longer have a partner that I was striving with. I am 25 and I acknowledge that life isn’t over but I can’t explain in enough detail how much I miss everything about this woman.
It’s just this simple to me at this point. If we got back together tomorrow I know exactly what to do and how to treat the love.
May 20, 2016 at 6:52 am #105142Anonymous
GuestDear bishop25:
It seems to me that the fact that you are living on your own for the first time is the reason why you are longing for this past relationship so intensely. Seems to me you are struggling with anxiety about living alone, some depression. So in this state you have a distorted, glorious view of the past with her. In your brain, the solution of your anxiety about living alone is to move back in with her. Everything that was looks so wonderful now while it was not wonderful then, in real life.
Now a house seems so wonderful because you feel anxious and depressed in your one bedroom apartment. Suddenly the clutter that was- is not so bad; suddenly the dog is not an issue. The past is painted pink simply because your present feels grey.
This is an opportunity for you to deal with living alone and find peace of mind in it (instead of escaping into nostalgia, that is viewing the past not like it really was).
anita
May 20, 2016 at 7:36 am #105147Jordan
ParticipantDear Anita,
I am certainly open to that being the cause. I still can’t escape the hindsight of how I should have communicated properly and what I could have done differently that I would now know how to apply it to the relationship. The simple fact is that I have learned a lot since the break up and I certainly can’t imagine my life with anyone else. Her and I just came across each other and had so much in common including life aspirations. I can’t get her personality out of my head or how lovely she was. I have felt this way before but this is different because my previous feelings for people came from a place of lust….not common interests. This is the first real relationship where all of my standards were met in one way or another and I can honestly only blame myself for not taking more action towards balancing things out. People say opposites attract and sometimes it is a good thing. I was her opposite in some ways and I see now that as opposites you can balance each other out. I just never took the action really. Believe me, I do have my joyful moments of living alone. It’s not all anxiety. It’s not too bad and I even have some friends that live in the building and my family lives close by. Another big scare is that I feel there is a difference between dating a single Mother and dating a single woman. The last 2 years of my life have been the parent life and I am lost in this world now of childless dating. I miss everything about her so much and if we got back together I wouldn’t aim to fix her, just help more. I don’t know. I’m probably not good at explaining myself right now. I appreciate your replies though.
May 20, 2016 at 8:09 am #105151Anonymous
GuestDear bishop25:
What is your most current status with your ex girlfriend? Did you tell her all the above? Did she respond and if so what did she say and when was that communication?
Is there hope for that relationship on her part?
anita
May 20, 2016 at 9:43 am #105162Jordan
ParticipantThe current status is no communication. No phone numbers, Facebook, nothing. I went to her place last a couple weeks ago to say my final goodbyes to her and the child as being around them hurts too much and just reminds me more and more of what I have left behind. I have made attempts months ago to try and get her back. Perhaps not with such detailed dialogue as I have given on here but I did make attempts. It’s simple from her end, she doesn’t love me anymore and doesn’t trust me as a partner. She is also with a new man that she is more compatible with so I really don’t see things going in the way of us getting back together. At the very least not now or any time soon. At the same time I don’t want to hold on to hope or anything for the potential to get back together down the road as that will likely make me suffer more especially if it turns out that we can’t.
May 20, 2016 at 10:09 am #105165Anonymous
GuestDear bishop25:
In this case, you have a choice: to continue to regret the past OR to avoid regretting the present once you look back at it in the future.
If you use today to regret the past, you are preparing today as the regret of the future. There is living for you to do, go live it. ??
anita
May 24, 2016 at 10:53 am #105505Jordan
ParticipantThere has to be something I can do to get her back. Any suggestions? Steps to take?
-
AuthorPosts