I’ve noticed a startling trend in the dating world: Something I’ll call the “faux-girlfriend” phenomenon. That’s when a guy treats you like a girlfriend in a lot of ways — you spend holidays together, you’ve met his parents, you have your own clothes drawer at his place. In fact, things are so girlfriend-y that it seems the next logical step would be fiancee-y and then wife-y. But something insidious and underhanded is going on. There are men out there (and women too, I imagine) who treat you like a girlfriend — but not really. That’s usually because while he wants the regularity and companionship of a real girlfriend, he doesn’t want the responsibility, the downsides, or the idea of cutting off his options.
How do you know if you might be the faux-girlfriend? Here’s six bigtime clues. Read more…