The stick-it-out gene

Sometimes I wonder why women seem to have a natural instinct to stick-it-out in a relationship when they aren’t getting the love, affection and respect they need or want. Maybe we think the man will change because they love us, or maybe we think we’ll “get over it,” but the truth is, men rarely change and we never get over it.

Is our instinct to stick around a learned behavior, or have women always been programmed to settle?

Even if you’re one of those amazingly strong women who never stays in a relationship one second longer than she should, at some point, we’ve all been tempted. Maybe you were tempted because you feared that particular person was the only one who could ever love you. Maybe your biological clock was ticking so loudly, that you were SURE other people could hear it. Maybe you were tempted because it was hard enough trusting that person, and you weren’t sure you would be able do it again with someone new. Or maybe, the man was simply hot.

Obviously, there is a major distinction between taking crap and compromising - but I’m not talking about compromising. I’m talking about the beautiful newlywed who hasn’t had sex in six months because her new husband hasn’t felt like it, or the young woman who is so desparate to get married, that she swears to her new boyfriend that she’ll wait while he goes to jail for six months. I have no explanation as to why there are times when we can’t seem to give up on men. But every once-in-awhile, I wonder if by sticking around, we are teaching men to give only as much as it takes to get us to stay.