[Babsy84]

Oh goodness, I feel so needy. 😉 What do I do with this?! Hahaha!

[Ask April Masini]

Get out of your own head and get some perspective on your life. Go volunteer at a hospital, an animal shelter, an orphanage or for an environmental or political group with a bigger cause than the one that’s pulling you away from productivity and peace. 😉

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[Babsy84]

I get it. I do. I have found quite a few things to do in this time. I meant more about his response and what I could do next. Believe me, I have been keeping busy and proactive with a good solid group of my closest friends. And as much as I express concerns on here, it’s because I try to dial it back in ‘real’ life. 🙂 You know a lot. I just want to learn some things. If that makes sense. With nothing but respect for you and what you do!

[Ask April Masini]

Thank you! 🙂

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[Ethan Morales]

What’s happening here isn’t a relationship that suddenly “fell apart” it’s a man who’s overwhelmed by several major life changes all happening at once: ending a marriage, blending families, military stress, a new home, planning for life after service, and the emotional weight of feeling responsible for you and your son. That stack can make even the strongest, most loving man hit a breaking point. His tears weren’t manipulation they were the emotional overflow of someone who’s been holding too much for too long.

His request for “space” wasn’t an attempt to abandon you; it was an attempt to stabilize himself. Men often withdraw when they feel they’re failing, or when they can’t see their future clearly. His career stress, fear of losing you, fear of becoming a stepfather, fear of losing control of his path all of that is swirling in his head. He’s not pulling away from you, he’s pulling away from the pressure he feels inside himself.

Your confusion makes sense. The mixed signals would confuse anyone crying, apologizing, saying he loves you, then going quiet. That’s classic emotional overload behavior. When he texts about appointments or little reminders, that’s his way of keeping a thread between you without feeling pressured to talk about the “big stuff” he’s not ready to express yet. It’s distance, but not disappearance.

April’s advice is solid for this exact kind of situation: do not chase him emotionally right now. Don’t interrogate, don’t pressure, don’t fill the silence with questions. He needs to think without feeling like he’s letting you down while he’s trying to sort himself out. Your role now isn’t to fix him it’s to make the idea of “home” feel warm, calm, soft, and safe again. That’s what will draw him back, not heavy talks.

The fact that you’re struggling to find compliments is a sign that the emotional dynamic between you two has become strained. Not hostile, but… stagnant. He feels it, you feel it. You’ve gotten into a rut where fear of losing each other turned into anxiety instead of connection. The way out is not to overthink it start small. A gentle message, a light compliment, something thoughtful and pressure-free. Something that says, “I’m still here, and it feels good to think about you.”

Here’s the bigger picture: This relationship is not broken it’s paused. It’s recalibrating. You two moved extremely fast while dealing with heavy pasts, and now the emotional bill for all that speed has arrived. If you stay calm, patient, warm, and steady… he will come back with clarity. After these two weeks, you’ll get more answers. For now? Stay soft. Stay grounded. And make sure the door he’s walking back through feels safe, not tense.

[Sally]

When someone pulls back like that, it hits in a way that feels personal even when they swear it is not. I have been in that spot where the person I love is scared of the future and I cannot do a thing but sit with it. It is a lonely feeling.

What I will say is this: a man who is truly done does not wake you up crying. He does not kiss you goodbye. He does not check in about the little things. He is not running, he is overwhelmed.

Give him the space he asked for, but do not put your whole heart on pause. Let him come toward you on his own. If he wants this life with you, he will show it once his head stops spinning.

And if he does not, you will still be standing. You are stronger than you feel right now.

[Tara]

You’re clinging to the fact that he cried. Let me clarify: tears aren’t commitment. Tears are guilt. He knows he’s disrupting your entire life, and he hates being the bad guy so he cries, apologizes, and tells you he loves you as a cushion for the blow you haven’t fully felt yet.

His sporadic reminders about appointments? That’s what guilt-driven men do when they’re trying to keep one foot in the door while mentally stepping out of the house. It’s emotional limbo — enough breadcrumbs to keep you hopeful, not enough to give you certainty.

You’re over here trying to take responsibility for “things we didn’t do.” Stop. You didn’t break this. He did. You didn’t fail to communicate. He failed to communicate before he hit a breaking point. You didn’t cause his fear. He’s using fear as a shield because he doesn’t want to confront whatever the real issue is whether it’s commitment fatigue, identity crisis, or simply reconsidering the future he thought he wanted.

And no, compatibility and shared dogs don’t lock in a man who’s wavering. They just make the fallout heavier.

Here’s your reality check:
You can’t fix his fear. You can’t talk him into certainty. You can’t love him into clarity. You can’t prevent a man from pulling away when he’s already halfway out the door in his head.
The only thing you can do is stop chasing him, stop analyzing the past for clues that don’t matter, and wait once only once for him to return with an actual decision, not scattered texts and emotional crumbs.

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