Okay, I nearly had to nail my hands down to the floor to stop myself from raging all over Tracie's last parenting piece. If you don't have anything nice, don't say anything at all right? I'm a blogger myself and I know all too well the sting of a negative comment.

Rage.

It's my theory of evolution that young men want to spread their seed, but older men realize the success of an offspring depends on two parents investing, hence why so many early 30's guys are on a wife hunt. Young guys like to spread far and wide in case they don't live (wars and all) but once they reach an age where…

That certainly clarifies things. Glad their happy, a big whatever to who is parenting who, I just thought it was strange.

Sorry, not buying it. Most people date a while before even introducing their children. They "might" eventually consider the new dating partner a parent, but jumping from "might" to declaring a headline that someone just became a parent without verifying the relationship is absurd.

So are Jillian Michaels and her GF committed for life and adopting each others' children? Good for them for living however they want, but if it were a straight couple who had kids and were "dating" one wouldn't consider them parents of each others' kids.

*sense!

If you're that far into a relationship, then I guess so. The whole point of the Rules is not getting into that situation from the beginning. Break them once, you have to keep breaking them.

Exactly. You simply don't engage with people who don't treat you how you want to be treated. There's no since in trying to reform an asshole, you just move on to people who treat you better. Immediately.

What you just said is basically the rules. DTMFA is he even hints at treating you like shit. Do you know how often that goes ignored? I'm sure you have friends who just put up with crap time and time again and wonder why their boyfriends don't pay attention to them or why their husbands forget their anniversary.

If not conforming to gender roles does it for you, then great. Do that. Do what makes you happy. I'm just saying I'm happy with my life as a result of some things I carried with me from reading that book as a teen.

You have an incredible point. It's amazing how many women overlooked my husband when he was single. STUPID. Oh man, am I lucky not every woman sees things the way I do. He is the absolute best anyone could ever ask for, but he is a "nice guy" and lots of nice guys get overlooked.

Getting into a relationship where you are getting hurt is lots of time a result of overlooking things in the beginning. If he's late or doesn't call, doesn't make plans etc. and you justify this with "it's 2012! I can call whomever I want!" then you are setting a precedent for what is acceptable behavior. Six months…

See my below comment: "I was exaggerating about the period talk. I think the example the book gives is to not divulge sensitive personal stories on the first few dates, like that you are an alcoholic, have depression or finance etc. Basically on the first three dates you should be having fun, not talking about your…

Congrats! I was exaggerating about the period talk. I think the example the book gives is to not divulge sensitive personal stories on the first few dates, like that you are an alcoholic, have depression or finance etc. Basically on the first three dates you should be having fun, not talking about your problems. I…

I agree about the word "nag". It's annoying. Maybe it should be replaced by "over chatting".

No, I wouldn't ask a guy out on a date, but that's me. To each her own. In my life, I found that only being on the receiving end of date-asking meant that I had my choice of guys who were interested in me. If three guys liked me, I could pick which one I liked the best. If I had been out hunting guys and there were…

I guess I don't remember those parts. Maybe they didn't make sense to me either so I ignored them? I just remember it being a lot about respecting yourself and not chasing after people who don't value you.

Exactly, there is a lot of common sense stuff in the book that people just need to know. I was very young when I read it (18) and needed to hear about what was appropriate date conversation etc.

Alright, let's not "assume" these are womanly traits. But I will tell you that many girlfriends I have had have acted like that and just one or two guy friends.