7 signs you’re dating a not-so-charming prince
3 min read
If you grew up watching Disney films, beware: a childhood spent idolising princesses may have caused you to conflate fiction with reality – according to a raft of disgruntled blokes on Reddit, anyway.
Men have been taking to the social media platform to vent their frustrations at a litany of ‘princess’ behaviours from their former flames, including ‘requiring me to pay full attention to her while she spoke’ and ‘not eating chicken wings.
These abhorrent crimes were supplanted by some almost valid complaints of privileged ex-girlfriends expecting to have their credit card debts cleared by their partners, or enquiring as to whether their new boyfriend might like to take on the role of ‘sugar daddy.’
We can all, of course, be guilty of expecting too much – this is a two-way street. So let’s examine some ‘prince’-type behaviours from men that fall a touch short of charming.
1. You know their colleagues by name and job title, but they barely know what you do
So, Mike Watson is now Assistant UK Resources Manager, instead of Deputy UK Resources Manager? Sounds like a great gig, pass on my congratulations to him. And send my love to Martha and the kids! Maybe we should invite them over for dinner with Petra and her new partner. You know, Petra? My colleague of the last six years? Sits next to me? I was bridesmaid at her first wedding? Never mind.
2. Holiday packing consists of their mobile, passport and credit card because they ‘don’t need anything’
Good job that “too big” suitcase you lugged to the airport (to the sounds of him saying, “but we’re only going for a week”) could accommodate the phone chargers, towels and toothpaste deemed so extraneous when he was sauntering out of the front door with “everything I need” in his jeans’ back pocket.
3. They expect their other half to be young forever
Women with younger boyfriends are ‘delusional’ and ‘cougars’, but there’s nothing wrong with a man being 20 years older than his partner.
Spot a true prince: he’s the one that, when his current squeeze reaches ‘settling down age’, is suddenly all over Facebook with a new girlfriend who’s barely out of university.
4. They have no concept of food getting on the table in a rush
No prince can ‘just rustle up’ dinner: “Why didn’t you tell me to come home via the supermarket?”
5. You’re ill? They’re really ill
My fever has been 103 degrees for the last two days and the bedsheets are drenched in cold sweat. But please, darling prince, tell me more about the ‘tickle’ in your throat. Of course I’ll pass my last two Day Nurse tablets.
6. Bed is a battlefield
You want to do a walking tour of the city at 8am on holiday – the time we usually leave for work? What do you mean, you’ll go without me? And God forbid, he has a hangover the next day… then you’ll hear dramatic groans if you so much as tweak the curtain.
7. They don’t have female friends because they’re ‘too much drama’
Yet the story about how Ben was ‘totally out of order’ to Marcus by not giving a toast at his work leaving do has only occupied the last 15 minutes. Please go on.
