Building a healthy and happy relationship requires respect. There are no exceptions to this, and if your partner is continuously going out of their way to disrespect you, it may be time to reexamine the relationship.
Relationships are built on love, trust, honesty, and respect. And while each of those aspects is important, a relationship can’t thrive on one of them alone, it takes all the above. Everyone deserves respect from their partner. There are some undeniable signs of disrespect, while others are not so obvious.
Here are 12 behaviors that show your partner does not respect you.
1. Disregarding your accomplishments.
In a relationship, you should be able to depend on support and encouragement from your partner. However, when you make a major accomplishment or work hard, and your partner disregards your success, it’s likely they don’t respect you.
2. Withholding physical love as a bargaining chip.
Intimacy should NEVER be a bargaining chip or power tool used in a relationship. It should be a given. When your partner withholds pleasure to get you to bend to their will, they don’t respect you.
3. Not making time for you.
You make time for people you love and respect, point, blank, period. Yes, there will be times in which it will be hard to juggle work, home life, and a relationship, but you can always make time for the people you love.
4. Withholding information.
You may catch your partner accidentally telling you something they did, or about a decision they made and didn’t tell you about initially. When you do, they say, “Oh, I thought I told you.” or “I didn’t want to tell you yet.” Withholding information is a major sign of disrespect in a relationship.
5. Not considering you when making big decisions.
In a relationship, both people’s opinions should be considered. When your partner makes major decisions about your lives and makes them without your insight, it means they don’t respect your opinion in the grand scheme of things.
6. They don’t hear you.
If you find yourself repeating things that are important to you regularly, because your partner didn’t hear you, it can become a problem. Hearing someone is different than listening because you can listen haphazardly. However, relationships require that you truly hear each other.
7. Lying to you.
You catch your partner lying to you, frequently, and about small things and big things. While you may think “Oh it was just something small,” lying, no matter what it’s about, is an indicator your partner doesn’t respect you.
8. It’s their way or the highway.
When you are trying to make a major decision, or choice together as a team, your partner only sees what they want. When you object or offer a counter opinion, they don’t listen, because they want it their way, or no way.
9. Talking over you.
Oftentimes in conversation, your partner talks over you. They interrupt you when you are trying to say something important, and even when you are talking or rambling about nothing. Regardless of when they interrupt and talk over you, the disrespect is all the same.
10. Disregarding your boundaries.
You find that when you ask your partner to stop doing something, or to give you space, that they ignore your boundaries. They are always in your personal space, and when you request respect for your boundaries, they ignore it.
11. Insinuating that they ‘settled’ for you.
Your partner insinuates or flat out says they settled for you. They may make mention of it in front of others, or act like they could find someone better if they wanted.
12. Acting inappropriately on social media.
Your partner collects people of the opposite sex on their social media, including ex-girlfriends or boyfriends, and other people they have slept with. And not only are they friends, but they also talk, comment on their photos, talk about sexual things with them and completely act in ways no one in a relationship should (unless it’s an open relationship.)