Ask yourself: Have I recently thrown either an object or a tantrum? If the answer is “yes,” you might be a drama queen. Take it down a notch by talking to your partner about why you’re feeling so angry and exactly what you need to feel calmer in the relationship. If you’re the one dealing with a drama queen, tell her you’re happy to discuss problems like an adult but you’re not interested in entertaining a whole restaurant with her shenanigans. If she doesn’t calm down, tell her to audition for a reality show and leave you alone.
2. Expecting the man to pay for everything. Most men don’t mind picking up the check early on in a courtship, but after a few dates, it’s nice for a woman to offer to contribute financially — especially if exclusivity has been established. Men like to be generous, but they don’t like to be taken for suckers, especially if the woman they’re seeing has a good job. As a corollary to this one, “Men are often put off by women trying to get a sense early on about what he does for a living and how much he earns,” says Dr. Seth Meyers, a Los Angeles-based psychologist and author of Dr. Seth’s Love Prescription. Men are people, too. If they feel they’re being sized up for more shallow, resume-type qualities, they’ll be annoyed.
3. “Wanting to know ‘where the relationship is going’ before he’s ready to say, or before he knows himself,” is a big one, according to Dr. Young. Dating is supposed to be a chance to get to know another person. It’s not a guarantee of finding a certain kind of relationship, and women who treat it this way drive men nuts. It’s almost as if the woman is selling herself short — after all, you can’t help but ask why a lady would want some kind of commitment from someone she doesn’t really know yet. Why is her “audition process” so short? Likewise, “Men often get bothered with women asking or talking about their beliefs about marriage and children early in the dating process,” observes Meyers. It puts too much pressure on what should be the fun part of getting to know someone when the end goal is the only thing a woman wants to focus on.
If the relationship isn’t likely to blossom into something steady and he’s upfront about that, a man wants the woman to hear what he’s saying and take him at face value. “Men are frustrated by women who don’t really believe them when they say, ‘I’m not in a place to have a relationship, but I really like hanging out with you,’” says Battista. “A man will give this ‘disclaimer’ and then be irritated when the woman finds she can’t change him, then begins to get angry that he hasn’t met her expectations.” If a woman wants to know how a man really feels and then gets hysterical after an honest response, it’s enough to — you guessed it — drive him crazy.
4. Being controlling. “Correcting him on little details when he’s got the big picture right,” adds Dr. Young, is another thing that drives men bonkers. It’s often true that women are better at multitasking, but that doesn’t mean they have to run every detail of the show. A man will get frustrated if a woman asks him to do something then won’t give him a chance to do it his way. The real show-stopper is when she then claims she “has to do everything around here!” If this situation sounds familiar, how can you improve it?
“If you want to put a stop to people’s annoying behavior, you first have to make them aware of it,” says Marc Muchnick, Ph.D., author of No More Regrets! 30 Ways to Greater Happiness and Meaning in Your Life. “Often, people don’t realize that what they are doing is bugging you, so when you tell them, it may come as a surprise.” So tell your significant other that she has to trust you if she doesn’t want to plan every meal, vacation and weekend you spend together, guys. Then do a good job with the task — in your own way, of course — and she just might back off.
5. Not getting enough “guy time.” In ancient cultures, men often spent most of their time with other men while the women socialized with each other. That, as we all know, has changed. And it’s hard for some men to accept. They want their guy time, and it’s rough when women don’t respect that. As long as “guys’ night out” isn’t a code for regularly losing thousands of dollars gambling or paying for strippers, men deserve to have time with their male friends. Deciding exactly how much time is appropriate should be left up to each couple. Remind her that time spent away from each other means the time you do have together will be that much richer — especially with funny stories about the ridiculous thing your buddy Paulie did last weekend. The key is, be reasonable. If you want more guy time than gal time, maybe having a wife or a girlfriend isn’t in the cards for you.
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