Think aloud
Taking into consideration that there is a definition for the word man-child, it’s time we finally find out who around us is one of them.
Does the man you’re dating act like a child? You might just be ignoring the signs because you see him as a grown man.
He doesn’t have to be a bad boyfriend, he’s just a bit more complicated than a man who makes allowances for his age and acts appropriately.
Let’s find out if he’s a man-child!
1. He can’t clean up after himself
I’m sorry for starting off with this one, but someone has to say it.
Women are not obligated to clean up after men, it’s just about how much they’re ready to work on themselves.
Is he constantly leaving things around the house?
His clothes are scattered on the floor and he leaves his socks wherever he can? He doesn’t even wash the dishes after he finishes a meal?
That sounds a lot like a little kid. The difference is that you’re dating an adult male who still doesn’t know his responsibilities.
It’s very obvious in the way he just expects you to do things for him and gets confused when you call him out on it. Weren’t you supposed to do all of this for him?
2. He isn’t nice to strangers
You can find out a lot about a man by the way he acts around strangers, especially someone who has to serve him.
How does he treat waiters? They are men who have to do their job and who do their best for their salary. Is the man you’re dating rude to them?
Even if a waiter does make a mistake, it’s rarely intentional so being rude to him says more about the person who’s actually attacking him.
How does he treat people who bump into him on the street by accident? Or a cashier in the supermarket?
If your answer is that he is usually very rude, he has to get his man-child attitude in check.
3. He can’t do anything by himself
Does he have to go to the doctor or do any type of errands? A man-child will always drag you along to every little thing he has to do.
Even if it’s just a routine check-up at the doctor’s office, he’ll still beg you to go with him.
It’s not that he’s scared of going as much as he’s scared of going by himself.
He will take you everywhere he goes under the excuse that you’re his girlfriend and that you should be there for him.
Just like the way a child can’t do anything without their mother.
4. He throws tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants
If you refuse him anything, like a night out or making food for the two of you, he’ll just straight up throw a tantrum.
He will start yelling at you or give you the silent treatment, just like a little kid.
This will obviously happen more often if you have spoiled him rotten and you’ve never said no to anything he wanted.
Now he feels entitled to get anything from you. If anything, this is the most obvious sign he’s a man-child, because he can’t take no for an answer.
5. If you reject his advances, he gets all pouty
He’s not talking to you, he’s on the verge of tears and he has that pout on his lips that is adorable but at the same time, it makes you question his age.
All of this for what? Because you rejected his advances when he tried to get you into bed with him.
He started off with something innocent but ended up getting too handsy with you and you simply rejected him.
A man-child can’t get over rejection and he will hold it against you.
He might even go as far as to not instigate anything so that you have to make the first move.
6. With him, yelling is more effective than an actual conversation
Have you ever seen how a mother handles a stubborn child? She tries to ask them nicely to stop doing something, but when the child refuses multiple times, the mother yells.
Yeah, it’s the same with a man-child. You can’t just sit him down and have a civil conversation with him.
He’d much rather talk over you and not let you get a word in. Or even worse, he’d rather get all up in your face, act all cute and not listen to a word you say.
What’s the only solution to this? To raise your voice to get his attention.
It’s sad that people like this actually don’t even know that this isn’t normal behavior.
7. He asks you to stand up for him or to make decisions on his behalf
Being in a position where you need someone else to have your back isn’t a bad thing. It happens to all of us, we’re human after all.
The problem begins when the man you’re dating doesn’t seem to see a problem with you making all the decisions for him.
Or if he did something he has to apologize for, he asks you to tell him what to do.
He constantly seems like a lost cause, because he couldn’t make a decision by himself to save his life.
He asks for your opinion on everything and he needs you to always have his back.
Being involved in your partner’s life is beautiful, it means he trusts you, but where do you draw the line?
8. He refuses to acknowledge his responsibilities
Sometimes we don’t actually know where the line is between being a man-child and simply a man who enjoys playing video games.
Let me tell you what the difference is: In his responsibilities.
A man who plays video games with his boys every once in a while but still manages to take care of all of his adult obligations isn’t a man-child.
A man-child will try everything he can to just ignore his responsibilities.
For example, finding an actual job that can provide for him and his family, and taking responsibility for his feelings, his health and his actions.
9. He can’t take a joke, but goes out of his way to ‘joke’ about others
You have probably seen how a little kid acts when they hear a joke about themselves that they don’t like.
You will see the same reaction from a man-child.
He will joke on behalf of other people while never thinking about their feelings, but once someone jokes about something he’s sensitive about, it’s over.
He will get defensive and/or get extremely mad at the people involved. There is no way he can take a joke and laugh with everyone else in the room.
The situation is different when he’s the one obviously insulting other people. His jokes aren’t even funny anymore. No one is laughing but him.
10. It’s never his fault
If you have a problem in your relationship, at work, or with your group of friends, it’s never his fault!
He can’t take responsibility for a problem he caused, but he continues to blame someone else.
Everyone else is at fault in his opinion and he will continue to blame others and not admit to what he did wrong. Just like a little child.
11. He’s afraid of commitment
Commitment issues can come from a long line of problems but are very often a sign of immaturity.
A man-child thinks that marriage or just being in a serious relationship in general can do nothing except tie him down.
He relates being married to losing all of his freedom.
He wants to go out with his friends and get drunk more than he wants a serious relationship.
You can see this most often in situations when you start a conversation about your future together and he automatically shuts you down.
He mostly talks about the past, because he’s stuck in his teenage or college years.
There is even a possibility that he’ll leave you if he feels like the relationship is getting too serious.
12. He doesn’t know the difference between being honest and being rude
We all know that words carry a lot of power. Words can make or break a relationship.
A man-child doesn’t understand the difference between being honest and being rude.
He’s probably walking around thinking that he’s just being brutally honest and that people can’t handle the truth.
There is no way that he would take into consideration that he’s the one hurting the people around him.
Just like a little child, he doesn’t have a filter and just says anything that pops into his head.
It’s your decision on what to do if the man you’re dating shows signs he’s a man-child.
Either you want to talk to him about it so he can work on it, or you can move on.
You just have to be sure that you won’t encourage him to continue his behavior.
He isn’t improving in his life and people will start cutting him off over time.
You are not his mother. You don’t have to take care of him like he’s a little child when he’s an adult.
