Blueberry yummy.

ALWAYS interested in anything with lentils.

Men who dont wish for their wife or woman to have such freedom, or independance, or self empowerment often feel bad about themselves and they fear secretly that if she gets too independant, too out there, she will not need him any longer or she will discover someone better then he is.

Then there are men who are just bastids who want a woman under their thumb like she is his possession - no point in me commenting on men like this - I might lose my cool exterior if I venture into that subject.

OP -- VERY controlling behavior actually.

But to answer your question as to the "why" someone wouldn't want their SO working or driving...if she was working and/or driving then she wouldn't be home all the time to coddle him, cook for him, clean for him, do his laundry and so on and so forth. As you said they've been married most their lives, so he's used to the routine. If that changes and she gets a job, then he'd have to fend for himself, of which I'd say he's likely not able (or willing) to do.

He probably imagined having to cook for himself, and clean himself, and do his own laundry and damn near had heart failure or shat himself. In his mind, it's probably "Daddy brings home the bacon...Mommy does the rest".

...then he gets frustrated and pulls away again.

Not a silly question at all but if they delete your thread it might be for redundancy -- no, I see people who settled and although they seem to tolerate it well, it's my idea of hell on earth.

Reality Stinks...but I have been where you are...DATING younger men is fine, have a RELATIONSHIP with them is not. They aren't on the same maturity level.

really from just reading their profile. when u have very specific desires in a person and specific things u know u don't want. no questions asked.
like kids for example,
u might know for a fact u don't want to date a person who has kids and once u see that on their profile, its a turn off
and other things. basic stuff i guess

I guess it makes sense to people that make dating and relationship decisions based solely on looks but personally I need to have a mental connection with somebody to want to be with them.

What's a nice guy suit? Does it have to be dry cleaned?

and what's with the Underwear Talkers?!?! i can't be the only one who gets the Underwear Talkers...

destructodave, how is that game playing working out for ya???

For me personally if a guy did that crap for a while I'd get the impression he's not interested, therefore I am not going to knock myself out on him either, in fact I will be long gone with someone that doesn't play games like that...

Last year I met my SO, I wrote him, I actually didn't think about him in a romantic sense, because I was tired of all the freaking lying and games I had dealt with for almost a year... However he was into something I wanted to learn more about, so I wrote him, asking if he'd care to share more about it...

We started e mailing, sharing interest, and then he even cracked out his web cam so I could see what he looked like as a person, NO NAKED STUFF, what a change...

We met and the rest has been history...

Had he played the of call once in a while, and act all uninterested, then he'd get that back in return... However some people have the right chemistry and things just maybe were meant to be...

OP, dating is hard, yes I have often felt it was some sort of universal joke... Just as going bald, having periods, grey hair, wrinkles, morning sickness, bad baby diapers, colic, and a host of other things that simple seem like things we could go without in life...

If it were really that easy would we have as much of an appreciation in finding that one person????