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- Newsgroups: soc.singles
- Path: sparky!uunet!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!nyx!tlode
- From: tlode@nyx.cs.du.edu (trygve lode)
- Subject: Re: Breaking up is hard to do....
- Message-ID: <1993Jan1.204735.24635@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
- Sender: usenet@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu (netnews admin account)
- Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix @ U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
- References: <1992Dec31.132159.21851@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
- Date: Fri, 1 Jan 93 20:47:35 GMT
- Lines: 56
-
- In article <1992Dec31.132159.21851@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> jsmt@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Julia Smith) writes:
- >Now that the holidays are gone, 'tis the season to revise relationships
- >(don't know why, but it seems to be happening alot). My question:
- >
- >What do you do when you know it is over/you find yourself uninterested/
- >you want to be moving on?
- >
- ><ref: comrade and I having a large difference of opinion about the
- > "just stop calling and eventually the person figures it out"
- > method. I am curious how pervasive it is.>
-
- I've found that the "just stop calling" method is not all that uncommon,
- but I do think that it's very unfair to the other party. (I wonder a
- little whether the popularity of this method is in part due to the ego
- boost one can derive from leaving someone else dangling for extended
- periods of time.) Whether you're entering a relationship, already in
- an existing relationship, or getting out of a relationship, the most
- constructive way to handle almost any situation is with honesty--leaving
- a romantic partner (or soon-to-be-ex-romantic partner) in the dark just
- reduces the happiness of all concerned and makes it that much harder for
- you to get what you want.
-
- Now, it's not easy to tell someone who has hopes and dreams of a future with
- you that you've decided that he or she just isn't the one for you and you
- want to explore other possibilities, but there's at least as much stress in
- not doing so--and the only advantage is that it requires less action on your
- part.
-
- Curiously enough, of late (in this part of the world, anyway), one of the
- most common breakup techniques involves taking the "just stop calling"
- approach one step further--that is, person A breaks up with person B
- (usually after meeting person C whom A wants to be involved with); however,
- A doesn't tell B that they've broken up and continues dating and being
- sexually involved with B, often for several months, depending on how long
- it takes for the word that A has broken up with B to get back to B. (This
- varies to a large extent on how many friends they have in common, since A
- is typically quite open with everyone but B about their having broken up.)
- B then feels deceived and betrayed and gets angry with A; A, however, feels
- that B is just being unreasonable and a little bit crazy, since in A's mind,
- they broke up long ago (without B knowing about it until now) which negated
- any commitments or promises between them. At this point, both A and B can
- revile each other and endeavor to bring all their mutual friends into the
- conflict.
-
- Personally, I think this method is a bit gauche, but in the last year or
- two, it seems to have become the most common breakup technique among the
- people I know.
-
- Trygve (Whose past breakups have almost always been remarkably painless
- by comparison.)
- --
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-