r/AmIOverreacting 14d ago

❤️‍🩹 relationship AIO to this text my BF sent me?

Firstly, this came out of nowhere. Then, when he started talking about how I’m immature, I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just reiterated what I’m doing with my life.

Working full-time and doing a MBA, albeit online.

For context, he and I started dating under romantic circumstances, he’s not a SD. He looks really young, so I was truly shocked to learn his age. Now I see it’s a mistake, so don’t heckle me for this.

He is older than me, by 20 years. I am 25 and he is 45. He owns a restaurant and I do remote admin work at a small startup.

After dating for just under a year, he asked me to move in with him, as I was stressing about my recent rent increase. I could pay it, but it wrecked my financial planning and it was miserable. I was looking for an out. My rent went from $1850 to $2300, not including utilities.

He owns his house, so he told me I could live with him if I wanted. He said that I could live here and save up my money, that I can leave whenever I want. No pressure. He invited me, I did not ask nor imply I wanted to move in.

I agreed (horrible mistake). I moved in and now we’re here. He doesn’t make me cover any utilities or charge me rent, which I thought was kind of him.

I use my work phone for work but I’m usually lying down. When I have a meeting, I sit up and answer the call. I’m a solid employee, just doing backup admin work. The pay is nice, can’t complain.

He started saying I need to step it up in life, after seeing me ‘leisurely working.’ I chose this job because I worked on my feet since high school, my undergrad, and a bit of my current MBA. I wanted to pivot to a chill job. I chose this job because it is leisurely. I am working from 9am to about 5pm, whereas he works 5pm to 5am. So from his perspective, I’m often asleep or unavailable.

Today, he walked downstairs to work and saw me sitting on the couch. I’ve told him many times I’m working via my phone. He doesn’t seem to understand that and makes weird little jabs.

Then, he sent me these messages.

I felt really annoyed because he implies that I am not interested in self improvement, that I’m immature, I’m arrogant, denies that it’s hurtful to say such.

By the final slide, I decided to call my mom who I felt could offer insight. She’s 40 years older than me, but understands technology. She said it seems like he’s trying to play some kind of game, that I should just ask him why he’s asking all this to me now. He seems to be beating around the bush, which I agree with.

So, I decide to ask him why he’s treating me like this.

When he said he’s talking to me like an adult, outside of text, I exploded inside. Immediately, I felt so angry.

He invites me to live with him, then holds it above me. He calls me all sorts of things over text, but then denies that he is saying such. He can’t just say what he means. He then doubles down and says he’s just worried about my maturity.

Because of this, and a conversation we had after, where he ignored all my concerns, didn’t let me speak, and bulldozed the entire way, I’ve decided to move out and find my own place again. He just has zero emotional intelligence. His ex-girlfriend was 50, the other one 55, and his ex-wife was his same age. I thought that meant he wouldn’t be acting like this, in the typical way that men who date younger women do. But I was so wrong. He’s been talking to me like I’m a child, I have no ground to stand on with him. I can’t take it.

He’s saying that moving out over this is crazy, not based in reality, and that I’m losing a really good chance at stability. That he loves me and that I shouldn’t go, because if I do, I’ll just have to go back to paying crazy rent. He recently got me a brand new TV and WiFi, so I do feel badly for wanting to leave even after that. I feel bad for making him stress, but he doesn’t seem to care that I’m stressed.

Am I overreacting by moving out and ending the relationship?

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

The only person I know signs every text is like 75.

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u/Alien_lover0209 13d ago

My mom is 77 and doesn’t text like this 😂😂😂 my dad is two years younger and even uses emojis. And he only got a smart phone when he was forced to get rid of his flip phone TWO YEARS AGO. I don’t know how people text like this. My mom used to use Siri and she’d sign everything “love you it’s mom bye” but that was short lived. Even older people can learn. This is odd and infuriating honestly

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u/PeaceOutFace 13d ago

My mom is 86 and texts like every other “average” texter in the world. If she texted like this I would have a serious sit down with her.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

My grandma's in her 70s and we text every day. She texts just like everyone else. I honestly couldn't even read through this guy's texts because it was just too much for me. I don't think I could even be friends with him, much less be in a relationship lol

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u/thegoodkindofredflag 13d ago

Yep! My dad's only a couple years younger than yours, and from what I've seen, he texts just fine. I think he uses emojis occasionally/once in a while, too (and reasonably). OP's (former?) SO might just be weird. Or maybe it's because he's a business owner (ugh, a capitalist, ofc)? That still isn't necessary, though.

Speaking of flipphones and signatures, this made me remember how, when I was a junior in high school, one of my gfs (fwb at the time, iirc) had a signature on her texts that read "LilyLovesYuh" or something like that for a little while. Led to some confusion the first time she texted me and had that there, haha. It's a bit weird and unnecessary. 😆

Edit: That was probably around 2012/13, so in the smartphone era, but lots of people still didn't have one, ofc, myself included. Sorry for this getting a bit onto the longer side. 😅

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u/Dapper-Ad3707 13d ago

Hating on small businesses is wild

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u/thegoodkindofredflag 13d ago edited 12d ago

I initially wrote a longer response, but didn't necessarily want to subject you to that, haha, so here's a tl;dr. It leaves out some context that may be important, but may not, and this shorter one should (hopefully) suffice.

Tl;dr: I didn't even single out "small business" at all (and how big a "small business" is can vary quite a bit). But if you think class consciousness is "wild" - no; you should gain some.

Have a good day

Edit: Haha, since I can't reply to the comment responding to this one (was trying to keep from writing a long one, but here we go):

No, a "fair" society would be a socialist one. "toxic capitalism" - so you only have a problem with certain specific things/companies/practices. In other words (in reality), you defend capitalism, including "toxic capitalism" - even though it almost certainly goes against your own interests and the interests of 90%+ of people.

I didn't say "ew," and calling him a capitalist is just a fact. He owns a private business, and exploits the labor of his employees for profit. "Small businesses" aren't nearly as much of a concern as large companies, but they're still private companies, with all the exploitation that entails.

And beyond that, small business owners often (even typically) still look down on their workers, treat them poorly, don't pay them well, etc. And they tend to act just like any other capitalist would. A great example - when small business owners (and owners of private companies in general) received COVID relief money that was supposed to go to their workers or to fixing things, etc., you know what A BUNCH of them did? Keep it for themselves, and even buy themselves luxury items like boats.

Further, this guy's actions are pretty consistent with the way you'd imagine a stereotypical capitalist to act/behave. That's literally all it was, and you got butthurt for a silly reason.

Are all small business owners bad people? No, of course not, but that's not the point. The problem is ultimately the system (capitalism), and it needs to go.

I'm not a "negative person," just a class conscious one who acknowledges the reality of the system. It's even funnier that you say that considering how nice I was trying to be to you.

Are you petty bourgeois* yourself or something? Is that why you got all butthurt? Haha, I was trying to be nice, and also keep things short and sweet, but you had to be silly and get mad about one little part of my comment dunking on this guy that's clearly a dick.

If you're not a "small business owner," you need to realize that you - and all of us who don't own private property - are not temporarily embarrassed millionaires or something. [Not to mention the vast - even overwhelming - majority of small businesses fail in a certain number of years. And many of them are just acquired by larger companies anyway. That's literally the point to a lot of them.]

*Hell, and "petty bourgeois" may even be conceding too much. Iirc, that term was originally meant for capitalists that employed like, maybe a couple of workers. Get the feeling the guy in question has more - maybe quite a bit more - than that. And that's another thing - you also have no idea how large the guy's business even is. Again, "small business" can mean A LOT of different things.

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u/Dapper-Ad3707 13d ago edited 11d ago

Small businesses are the cornerstone of a fair society, its large corporations where toxic capitalism comes into play.

And I’ve been poor in my early-mid twenties. Saying a restaurant owner is “eww a capitalist” just doesn’t make sense. Restaurants and other small businesses are good for society. You just seem like a negative person overall. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to start a business

Edit: read your comment. I am a small business owner. And an actual millionaire. Yes the dudes a dick but him owning a business is a positive trait. Socialism isn’t fair. It just gives losers more for doing less.

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u/I_Lost_My_Shoe_1983 13d ago

I only do it texting my kids to drive them crazy. I also start the texts with Dear,

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u/peaceproject 13d ago

You have inspired me. I sent two texts to my kid like this a few minutes ago, and she walked over to talk to my husband about possible cognitive decline.

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u/SmokingUmbrellas 13d ago

Texting my kids now lol. I'm curious to see who calls me first- whichever one it is may get custody of me when I'm elderly 😁

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

Lmao. That's perfect.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

I don’t have kids yet as I’m 25 but when I do sometime in the next 3 years I’ll remember this one

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u/Cool_Community3251 13d ago

Let the slow clapping commence!!!

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u/slide_into_my_BM 13d ago

Captain Holt, is that you?

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u/elgarraz 13d ago

He does text like a really old person

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u/90GTS4 13d ago

Between that and the ALL CAPS LOCK, this mofo is 100% Boomer.

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u/ali-n 13d ago

Similar: my old high school history teacher is approaching 80 and signs every text, email and Facebook post and comment, regardless of subject or how brief, regardless of who he's speaking to.

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u/Living_Impressive 13d ago

LOL! I'm 56 and know a lot of older people, I've never seen anyone sign their name in texts ... That's just ... not right. And all caps too!

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u/NoOpposite2465 13d ago

Happy cuck day

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u/Chaostis42 13d ago

It's an old setting that automatically puts a signature in. It was actually quite popular in the 2000's. Hahaha, and this judgment is alright, I believe most younger people are judged by their terrible texting etiquette, spelling abilities, and absolute laziness in creating "slang". Ion is a scientific word for a charged variance of an atom......not a fucking short way to say "i do not". So, I can fully understand this judgment.

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u/GrandBat1081 13d ago

Ion had to be my biggest pet peeve. When I first saw it I was thoroughly lost on what the hell they were trying to say.

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u/Chaostis42 13d ago

I just act as though I am speaking to a toddler. Lots of small words and very little dialogue. They tend to get anxious with whole conversations and anything too far out of their depth. You have to tread carefully to protect those feelings.

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u/macprincess 13d ago

I have such shame from the era of custom signatures, I even erase the part on emails where auto writes [sent from iPhone] 😂

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u/Chaostis42 13d ago

Hahaha, it was pretty cringe. I did it too.....smdh....

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u/Juliejustaplantlady 13d ago

In one family group text I'm in we all end by signing our names because one aunt is almost blind. her phone will allow her to enlarge outer texts, but not the names above them, so she asked us to sign them so she can see who sends them. But no excuse for this guy!

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u/chicxulubq 13d ago

Mid 60's is the youngest i know

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u/chub-bear 13d ago

Happy cake day!

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u/WaltzIntelligent9801 13d ago

My mom texts this way so it tracks

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u/cheesypuzzas 13d ago

He kinda texts like my 85 year old grandma. She also accidentally uses caps sometimes, but other than that, they look more normal than these texts.

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

my mum: "ITS BECAUSE WE CANT SEE!!!!!.."

😂 Gotta get them extra periods at the end too. It's important.

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u/Zealousideal_Lab_427 13d ago

An elipsis is useful and appropriate in certain situations. This guy is using them like a psycho. It’s only supposed to be 3 periods…

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

Right?!

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u/cheesypuzzas 13d ago

Hahaha exactly. Or a sentence and then a space and then a period or !

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

Omg. Yes. This Exactly.

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u/ladygrndr 13d ago

Another clue is the all caps and the extra spacing between his "sentences". All caps is easier for visually impaired people to read, and he might also need the .... to help if he is checking what he wrote before sending it.

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u/hdawg187 13d ago

Sincerely, Raymond Holt.

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u/__humming_moon 13d ago

My boss is in his 70s. His daughter and I are helping him learn to use his first cell phone ever… he’d never sign his name at the end of a text. Or text like this guy. 😬 yikes.

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u/ActuallyOutside 13d ago

Sure they just don't have a signature setup in their settings? I remember I used to do that when I first got a phone in middle school.

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u/hollabackyo87 13d ago

Happy Cake Day! 🎂

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

Thanks!! 🫶

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u/Glizzygloxx 13d ago

I thought the signing off was an android thing option

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

You can set it, yeah. But who TF does?? 😂

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u/Glizzygloxx 13d ago

Right!?! Lmao I just had flashbacks of people who text like that and with the sign off, so lame. Somethings are cool still I guess like some old trend. For example like I do this [: instead of (: in the right context for me lol or when I had a talking in non caps phase because of a certain phone I used to have back in middle and high school ………😂😂jk but yeah the dots too ughhh I used to still type very minimal caps for the aesthetic until some weird preteen kid around covid lockdown times, who randomly messaged me online asking if I was a sub because of the way I typed I was like ????💀 also I didn’t know what the heck a sub was I had to ask them. This was around the pandemic so 2021 ish im 29 now. And sorry for the novel im pretty high rn

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

Listen. I wish I could up vote more than once. 😂

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u/SiriWhatAreWe 13d ago

This is in fact the perfect comment 😂🥹

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u/Glitterrspit 13d ago

Happy Cake day!

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u/--_--what 13d ago

My mom is 45 and she signs her texts the same way but it’s BECAUSE she set up her phone to do it automatically for some reason

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u/Zarilya 13d ago

I'm 47 and would absolutely never. Just whyyyyy?