Today’s Relationship Advice is Toxic (Part 3)

I was just re-reading the last thing I wrote about toxic relationship advice, and I had more thoughts about “the rose” metaphor.

In the last couple of paragraphs, I had mentioned what happens when your partner stops putting in effort:

If you continue to put in effort when your partner stops, you are placing more importance on your partner than your partner is placing on you. Your partner is showing you that you are not important while you are continuing to show them that they are important. The less they do, the more you do, attempting to get them to see how important you are, but they are too busy taking advantage of the importance you have placed on them.

If we think about our relationship/partner as a rose, consider what happens when you keep giving while your partner keeps taking. You are that person’s rose, but you are beginning to wilt because your needs are not being met. Your partner is also your rose. If you keep watering your rose, eventually you water it too much and it drowns. Giving too much is just as bad for your loved one as giving too little. Taking too little is just as bad for you as taking too much.

We need to stop giving to people who do nothing but take from us. We need to stop accepting less love than we deserve. We deserve the same love we give others.