[QUOTE=Anonymous37894;5492459]I think you already know the answer and I think you know what you need to do, but perhaps need reassurance.

Wow… “He’s not that into you”, yes, I read the book after watching the movie, and completely forgot about it. I must have left it back home, I wonder if it is still there. But yes, I see your point, and I find it funny that I’ve heard of so many couples that end their relationships after 7 years together (my boyfriend's previous relationship also lasted for 7 years). I’ve always wondered what's the reason behind it. Anyway, I feel loved (most of the time), and we have talked about future, marriage and family, but it is definitely secondary… “first, we gotta solve this, and that”,... and those things do not have a short-term solution, and I don't have a lot of time.

And I do agree on the sponge thing. I don’t even see myself as someone who could live off from my partner, I would get depressed and lose my sense of purpose, you know? So I really don't get how he has allowed more than a year to go by like this. He has been looking for jobs, but honestly I don't know that he is putting the kind of effort that he should. And when you mention how many people have worked 3 jobs on the side while pursuing their dreams, that's exactly what I been trying to tell him when I say I don’t see him putting all the effort he could. And funny that you say “he has a lot of growing up to do”, because he really thinks that he is more mature and knows more about life than me because he has lived by himself since he was 19. Says the guy who doesn't has his stuff together. The nerve.

A new layer to our relationship is that his father might be diagnosed this week with a very serious disease (and honestly, the panorama is not promising, I’m expecting the worst, hope I'm wrong), and some family members suspect that his mother might be struggling with a mental illness, too. He does feel the pressure now to get a job in whatever he can find to support them, so that’s good, but now it’s like… Is this going to complicate our relationship even more? Is this a bad time to break up?

And, yes, I’ve crossed the bridge of enabling him, I'm sure. Not just me, but his family as well, just not as much as I have since I’m the one living with him. I guess part of the reason is that I have no one else in this city and I’m afraid of being all by myself. All my good friends have moved out, and I have no family here. But I guess I’ll need to grow out of it.