You’re well aware by now that not every relationship is built to last, and you’ve probably even found a strange peace with that fact. However, there’s a major difference between things running their natural course and being a foster girlfriend — that is, the woman a guy dates until he finds his “forever home” with someone else. How do you know if this is a role you’ve been fulfilling in your love life? Look out for these signs.
- Your exes always seem to find “The One” after you break up. If it seems like all of your exes magically find the one for them as soon as you break up and end up in a serious relationship or even engaged within six months to a year, sorry, you’re a foster girlfriend. You’ve been keeping his bed warm until he decided he was ready to get his act together and be a decent partner… to another woman.
- You tend to put in all the work in relationships for little to no reward. When you’re with someone, you give them your all. You’re supportive, encouraging, and reliable. There’s nothing you won’t do to ensure that your partner feels secured and cared for, often to your own detriment. If you feel like you’re putting in tons of hard work, only for the rewards from that worked to be reaped by the woman he’s with after you, I think you know what that means.
- You always feel like your boyfriends have one foot out the door. Even if you’ve been dating a guy for six months, you still never quite know where you stand and aren’t totally sure that he’s not going to dump you out of the blue one day. As a foster girlfriend, you’re regularly with guys that aren’t really looking for anything serious and don’t want to stop playing the field but they also want the benefits of having a girlfriend without any of the commitment that comes with it.
- Most of your relationships end before they get too serious. Things seem to be going well and in your eyes, the next natural step would be to really nail things down by getting engaged or at the very least moving in together. And yet, when things finally get to that stage, the relationship ends instead. That level of seriousness isn’t for the foster girlfriend, which is why it never happens for you.
- You’re drawn to men with commitment issues. Sometimes you end up being the foster girlfriend simply because you allow it to happen. If you find yourself attracted to men who need a little work, who lack emotional intelligence or who aren’t quite on the same page as you, you’re basically begging to be screwed over. Do yourself a favor and raise your standards – you deserve to be his forever, not just until something better comes along.
