35 Things Partners Did Or Said That Made Them Realize They Are Never Getting Married

Though marriage is one of the most romanticised notions in books and on TV, most people are still rather hesitant to jump into matrimony. They hem and they haw as they consider their dating partners’ potential as spouse material. The natural misgivings people have towards a lifetime commitment can only be dispelled by their partner. If a significant other’s behaviours display any red flags, it can put people on high alert, possibly even ruining any future prospects of marriage. Recently, an online discussion dug into the topic when a Redditor asked, “What did she casually say that made you realise she wouldn’t be your wife?” Scroll to read all the passing comments made by a partner that gave Netizens pause as they realised that marrying such a person would probably not work out great in the long run. 

#1

Image source: LENTILBURRITO__FTW, Getty Images / Unsplash "I have like 20 credit cards and most are maxed out, it's fine though I'll get my husband to eventually pay them off for me or I can file for bankruptcy and get new ones." When I tell you I RAN, GOOD LORD I RAN. Reivaki: I would have passed the sound barrier before passing the door, personally. AFB27: It's so nuts to me regarding the number of people who have this mentality. It's honestly alarming.

#2

Image source: Nach0Man_RandySavage, Andrej Lišakov / Unsplash We were engaged and I got introduced at a party of work people as 'her friend'. kavOclock: My girlfriend still won't introduce me to her friends as her boyfriend. Too real. Sexvixen7: Similar situation. I was dating this guy and he was great. Spent every afternoon/night together just talking and joking around and being happy. Went to this party and he introduced me as his neighbor. Big bummer. Still really into him and we had similar aspirations. Another girl came along and she sorta replaced me. And that was that. F**k Kellen and her sneaky way of trying to be my friend just to steal him from me. Congrats. You won.

#3

Image source: technicalityNDBO, Getty Images / Unsplash "I feel like you're not making me your priority." (3 days after my mom died).

#4

Image source: anon, Getty Images / Unsplash Idk if I can quote it directly but she was living with her mum and paying the rent because her mum had lost her job. I think she'd been living with her since breaking up with her ex a few months earlier. Anyway, she spoke about her mum as a callous landlord might talk about a nuisance tenant. She followed this up by talking to her mum like she was s**t on her shoe. Now I realise parents are different when there's no company around, but this woman was like a fragile anxiety case at a difficult point in her life. Her daughter on the other hand had a secure job, was living the life she wanted, very headstrong in all ways, etc. I don't know. It all just got my back up. Couple weeks before I'd been telling my mate that this girl was changing my life, that I was feeling happy first in ages. Witnessing her treatment of her mum and how she spoke about her, on multiple occasions, just told me get away from her and pray for her mum.

#5

Image source: bjphillips87, Getty Images / Unsplash It actually wasn't what she said, but what my dad said. After a stupid fight at the end of a very a*****e relationship, I was venting to my friend and my dad, telling them how she had called me pathetic because I asked her to stop calling me fat. She laughed, and I hung up. My dad looks up and says, "How could you let anyone treat you that way?" I knew then, and there it was over. Newbionic: That’s parenting the right way. He didn’t tell you what to think or do. He let you make your own discoveries.

#6

Image source: CalcBros, Dwi Asy Syafa'Atul Ulyah / Unsplash My dad died in 2000 and a friend of mine brought over a tray of food to my family. We were friends, but not close enough to where we knew each other's phone numbers or addresses. It was a complete surprise to see her. She just heard about it and looked for something to do to help. Months later, I realized it was something my girlfriend would never do. I started dating the food tray girl about 15 months later and married her.

#7

Image source: Ok-Bit-6945, Getty Images / Unsplash She argued with me over the cost of the ring. It was just an open discussion and the fact that the price meant so much to her made me nope tf out. wantsoutofthefog: Ex gf said the ring has to be $50k and we had to have a 500k house lined up. This was 2010. I was like, “seems like we’re not getting married” VatooBerrataNicktoo: I love that over the years men are seeing and acting on red flags.

#8

Image source: anon, Getty Images / Unsplash When her son told me that earlier in the morning before school, his mom looked at him and said “I really miss when it was just us two”. A month later we were done, but hearing that phrase specifically, after basically raising him without his father in the picture, and literally taking care of him day to day, I knew in that moment she would never be my wife after saying something like that. Boomshrooom: Sounds like she's gonna have a very unhealthy relationship with her son. Can-Chas3r43: I dated the son of a woman like this, and can confirm. You are doing your children no favors by being this woman. (Or the dads that are absolutely obsessed with their relationships with their daughters and not allowing them to live.) Both are cringe.

#9

Image source: TheLegionmma, Getty Images / Unsplash “ I want my husband to make my life simple , wake up and spend money and do whatever I want.” Woman.. you want a sponsorship not a relationship… ?. Anon: She's a Sugar Baby in denial. There's a lot of those these days. Usually they're the women who are upset that women can work and vote.

#10

Image source: Zztp0p, Curated Lifestyle / Unsplash “A man is not a real man unless he pays and provides for his woman’s every need” nope.

#11

Image source: GuillaumeAzkoaga, Getty Images / Unsplash "I don't care about your problems, you're a man, act like it". We were dating for 2 months, she was already talking about marriage and kids, I told her to slow down: I was out of a 2 years long a*****e relationship and even tough I was really into her and had the intention of building a lasting relationship with her, I needed to build trust at a slower pace. My next message was literally "Okay we're done. Best of luck in life" and I never saw her again. Now I found the one and we're doing great! ElHuevoCosmic: Man I love when issues solve themselves. She saved you the trouble of leaving her. GuillaumeAzkoaga (OP): Oh no, I was the one typing that message. I left her on the spot, don't give her credit for that :D My heart was racing as I sent the message but damn it felt good afterwards. I wasn't having any of that.

#12

Image source: wanderingwonderer96, Yunus Tuğ / Unsplash I watched my ex steal from Walmart. We were not well off but we had enough money to go out occasionally. When I caught her she said it was like a game and gave me excuses as to why it doesn't matter because it's a big company. It got worse when I caught her stealing from local places as well. I know some people think it's fine but it really rubbed me the wrong way. You can't trust a thief. NyaNyaOctopussyQWQ: Sounds like kleptomania to me. numbersev: She likely stole from you as well. They don't really discriminate, just monkey see monkey want. Mung-Daal6969: Oof I get it man. I’m probably really pretentious but I consider myself a morally sound character and I hate corporations as much as the next guy but to me the worst kind of people are the ones that knowingly skip an item or two at the self checkout but claim to be good people.

#13

Image source: Tropical_Geek1, Getty Images / Unsplash "D**n, this beach is full of poor people. I hate the poor!".

#14

Image source: worstnameIeverheard, Getty Images / Unsplash Probably when I was devastated because I'd had a miscarriage, and he told me that I had to stop talking about it, because it made him sad.

#15

Image source: Hello0897, Crook & Marker / Unsplash When she would flirt with other men right in front of me and then gaslight me about it.

#16

Image source: Current_Poster, Curated Lifestyle / Unsplash My father's stage-four cancer had come out of remission, and this girl I was seeing told someone else (inside my earshot, and she knew that) that people who do bad things get diseases out of 'karma'. With hours of me telling her that was what was bothering me that day, so there's no excuses. (When I tell this story, for some reason, people come out of the woodwork to make excuses for her, which tells me more about *them* than anything else.) On a much more casual level, I once kind of liked a girl until she told me that (because "men are useless") her actual *plan* was to get pregnant off a guy and then break up with him so that she could be a single mother. I found someone else to like. One time I was dating a woman who, when she heard I was heading up to the nearest city for something I needed to do, invited herself along. When I showed up early (as agreed, so we could make a fun day of it), she took *five hours* to get ready. Then she wanted to go to an expensive vegan restaurant (she wasn't vegan, it was the 'expensive' part), expected I would know how to get there (this was before Google Maps, and I didn't even know the *name* of the restaurant!), when I finally found it, it had closed because of a blizzard and we ended up having to eat at a Wendy's across the parking lot. I have never seen anyone angrily nibble on an apple before. That wasn't one thing, but she was an absolute feast of warning signs I didn't see because I was trying so hard to 'be a good boyfriend'. These things went in order, btw, so when I say I "retired for a while" because this was the caliber of person I was somehow attracting, you can see what I mean. priscillu: I personally don’t think we only attract certain types of people. We just allow them to stay in at too long in our lives. Ppl will come and go in our path, and it’s up to us to decide who stays.

#17

Image source: helpamonkpls, Michael T / Unsplash I asked if I could kiss her after a date. She went on a long rant about how unromantic that was and how I was cheesy and ruined the moment. Arite then bye.

#18

Image source: DNA_ligase, Annie Spratt / Unsplash When he put his hands around my throat and threatened to stab me if I ever argued with him again. I endured years of emotional a**se and gas lighting, even catching him cheating, but apparently until it escalated into physical a**se, I thought this was normal behavior. I'd like to redo my early 20s again.

#19

Image source: RantingRobot, RYNA studio / Unsplash She had 1 ice cube tray with 8 slots and always complained that she didn't have enough ice. I asked why she didn't empty the ice cubes into a bag and refreeze more, and she scoffed and said how stupid that was because the ice cubes would all stick together. Ice is sold in bags. It's also easily testable. Why would anyone be so confident about something that they've never even tried? She was like this about a lot of her positions. Zero curiosity as to whether something was actually true, zero effort on her part to challenge her own beliefs, she just accepted a lot of weird s**t with no fact checking at all. I don't know why the ice thing sticks in my head above all the other stupid stuff she said. But after that I knew it wouldn't work out.

#20

Image source: BritzerLad, Vitaly Gariev "You're a pathetic excuse for a man. I f*****g hate you." We'd been going through a rough patch for a few months but had been together for 11 years. She was drunk and angry and it came out. She didn't remember saying it and we never talked about it. TBH this is the first time I've actually said or typed those words out. That was over 5 years ago but it still hurts like hell. I called it off a few months later. She'd never said anything that hurtful to me before but those words came from somewhere. I just couldn't get over them.

#21

Image source: little_beer, Getty Images / Unsplash When he pushed me off of the air mattress while camping, took all my blankets and kicked me in the face for trying to take a blanket back. When I told him in the morning to see if he remembered he asked me, "do you have any marks from me kicking you?", which I did, and he told me that couldn't have been from him. I left him at the campground.

#22

Image source: capnhist, A. C. / Unsplash When she insisted on having a fight, called her mom for support, and when her mom said it must've been something she did, she got pissed off and told me to go sleep in the park. On my birthday. Epilogue: I told her a week later I wanted to break up and she said "Umm... No. I don't accept that." Anon: When someone's mom of all people doesn't have their back, probably a good time to leave. Kitty_Rose: Breakups are not debates. Once one person decides it's over, the relationship is done for good. Even if that person hangs around for a while, the relationship is dead. The feelings and reasons that made them stay are dead. And anything the other person does to try to keep said relationship only drives the other one further away. I've seen way too many people, my ex included, that didn't understand this. How long did it take your ex to finally understand that your breakup was final? capnhist (OP): When I left the country and went back to the US three months later (mostly to get away from her). She refused to believe me until that moment.

#23

Image source: hotlocation999, Getty Images / Unsplash My ex fiance, this was years ago, I had a cr**py car, so after the engagement (middle east) so there's a ceremony, party, gold, lots of expenses, I decided to get a better car, two weeks in I crashed it and had to pay a lot to fix it. I felt tight on money and sadly I opened up to her, she started sobbing and said she never imagined she would marry a broke guy. I wasn't broke, I just spent a big portion of my savings on the engagement and a car so that my old one doesn't break down on dates. Something in me shattered that day, and I never saw her the same, things just kept going downhill and I broke up the engagement 6 months before the wedding. I had gotten back to my old savings levels during this period.

#24

Image source: Neil_DeSpace_Cosmos, Vitaly Gariev That she was thinking about how best to negotiate down the money her parents would demand from me for their blessing to marry her. I incredulously told her, that her a*****e sh**bag parents would never receive a penny from me and as the ensuing conversation unfolded my vision of our life together went up in smoke.

#25

Image source: flourpowerhour, Getty Images I'm a wilderness biologist. She was a tv news reporter. We were driving through some beautiful rolling hills on the way to Texas when she looked out the window and said, "Do you ever think about how much wasted space there is out here? There could be, like, a city there!" No... that thought has never crossed my mind. I'd rather see Mother Nature repossess the cities, lol. That was the first indication, anyway. The real nail in the coffin was after my dad passed away. When I first called her and told her what happened, the first words out of her mouth were, "Well, what were some of your favorite memories of your father?" That's when I realized she was not emotionally capable of giving me what I needed, (edit: and her toxic positivity of trying to "cheer me up" was only harmful. It was like she was pushing me to move on as soon as possible, and complaining that I wasn't "taking good care of her.") It took a while after the fact, but when I look back, I can see that's where the breakup started.

#26

She didnt want "the one", just "A one". and like, on a *strict timeline*. she broke up with me as soon as i signed a 1 year lease on an appartment because that would mean we wouldn't move in together for at least a year, and she *has* to be engaged by febuary of 2018 and that just wont work out. she needs to be married by september of next year, and i just messed up her timetable. she was 20 years old, and we had been dating for three months. yea i had no idea about her plans. so, good luck? Image source: GreasyBud

#27

Image source: woahbrad35, Max Harlynking / Unsplash We both work, relatively equal time/ effort, etc and we own separate houses. She spends most of her off work time at my place. I was doing all the cooking, dishes, the laundry, vacuuming, trash, etc, but I was getting really burned out. I got frustrated and told her I couldn't do it all, it wasn't fair, and I needed help and partnership. I told her I shouldn't have to ask her to do some of these things, that we are both adults and can see when the dishes need doing or laundry is piling up. She said "you just want a house wife"... As if she did a single solitary house wife thing ever. Marriage? LOL no. Imdatingstaceysmom: I feel like I'm seeing this more and more. Many women (not all women) are taking the movement of 'women don't need to be housewives' so far in the other direction that they don't help with much at all. woahbrad35 (OP): It's honestly become a red flag for me if they can't or won't cook. It's a real marker for the effort they'll put into that boring s**t nobody wants to do but still needs to be done. I mean, it isn't a requirement to cook every day, eating out is fine, and I don't mind splitting tasks since I feel like that's the point of moving forward in relationships, but to sit there, look at a full sink of dishes where half were yours and then ignore it week after week? I already raised a kid, I'm not out to raise a grown adult.

#28

Image source: Shine_Up, Rendy Novantino / Unsplash She told me the C in her name stands for crazy. Also insisted on me telling her a personal secret. This was during the first date lol.

#29

Image source: Bigboyfresh, Blogging Guide / Unsplash She told me I need my man to pay all my bills, I get turned on when my man pays my bills. My money is my money and your money is my money. My mom has 4 kids by 4 different guys. Mom had affairs with married men. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with this one, I RAN like Forest Gump.

#30

When she said that I was too selfish of a person. This is less a representation of who I am and more of who she is. She was a PhD student in Special Education and her goal was to travel to war torn countries and teach english to children with disabilities there. I design medical devices in an air conditioned office, so to her, I wasn't willing to personally sacrifice enough to help others. She's a wonderful person, but I realized that I could never live up to her standards of altruism. Image source: 500_Shames

#31

One day she just told me I was boring, I didn't end things that day or even that month but it set things in motion because it just made me check out. I'm still about as boring as I was back then but I'm happily married, so it just goes to show how important compatibility is when it comes to how you want to spend your time. Image source: VinCatBlessed

#32

Image source: saintstu, Jeanie de Klerk / Unsplash “I’m checking to see if our star signs are compatible.” fretnbel: After my ex broke up I found out she was googling astrology compatibility between her and the guy she was eyeing. Still baffles me how someone can put any value in that. Fast forward 8 months later and she's crying at my door unannounced. MikeyBGeek: I had someone turn me down because I was a Sagittarius. And my ex kept saying she didn't care if our "signs don't work out." Never again will I have patience for horoscope bullc**p.

#33

Image source: hillsidemanor, Curated Lifestyle / Unsplash She told me that we needed to stay in because of the chem trails in the sky. She believed they were a governmental program that drugged us and controlled our minds.

#34

Image source: anon, A. C. / Unsplash My first girlfriend and I were long distance. It is not exaggeration to say that literally every cent of my disposable income was spent on her in some way, shape, or form. Trips down to where she lived, hotels to stay in during said trips, gifts, vacations, restaurants--I didn't make that much money, but I spent literally all of it on her. So, on one weekend during that first year together, I had, as usual, taken a trip down to see her. Now, I'll be honest: I was completely spent. I had nothing more than my earthly possessions, a bus ticket home, and the irresponsibility of a 22-year-old man that makes all this possible. I knew that until payday, which was four days away, I would be limited to the food I had at home, which if I recall correctly, was a loaf of bread and some rice. On Sunday night of that weekend, my girlfriend wanted to go out to dinner. So I was honest with her. I told her I didn't have any money. She told me that she'd pay. So, as we were having dinner at some family restaurant, she seemed distant. I asked her what was wrong. She said "nothing." When I pushed, finally she opened up: "Mayumi (her best friend) has a boyfriend, right? I was talking to her the other day, and she told me that whenever they went on a date, he would always pay. I feel really guilty for this, but I was kind of jealous at the time." I stared at her for a few seconds to process her words. Remember, this was a woman whom I had spent virtually every cent of my money on visiting and pampering. We had gone to a VERY nice restaurant the weekend before, which I paid for. 95% of all our trips were paid for in full by me. And she was talking about her friend's boyfriend who lived 10 minutes away paying for everything. She was a s****y girlfriend in general, but that was just the final nail in the coffin for me. Whether I knew it at the time or not, that was the exact moment I had mentally checked out of the relationship.

#35

When after far too many occasions I came home from a full day of work to find her sitting outside smoking while our newborn son was inside crying, which she had failed to feed or care for all day. I even asked the neighbours and they said, he would cry from when i left until when i returned non-stop. Turns out she wasnt quite the motherly type, and hes been with me ever since, she rarely sees him. I wouldnt even have a problem with her seeing him, she just never wants to. Image source: rylo151