Boyfriend’s lack of cleanliness is making my attraction deteriorate, AITAH?
My (24f) boyfriend (25m) have been together for about 11 months now, we met each other, hit it off immediately, and became exclusive right off the bat.
We both work blue collar jobs, with his being in composites at the moment. He uses a respirator, but is still breathing in lots of epoxy and other chemicals. My problem here is, the boogers. In the beginning of our relationship when I noticed it I wouldn’t say anything, and maybe just try to dodge kisses. Well a couple months ago we got into our biggest argument yet over our sex life, with him expressing he wants to have sex more, and me saying the same. The argument arose from him making a (gross) sexual comment, and when I shut it down he got defensive saying that I never make moves on him anymore. And he’s right, I don’t. Almost every day I’m with this man, at one point he’s got boogers peaking out. Or earwax over flowing out of his canal. Or really dirty hands/nails. So I said screw it, and I brought all of this up, and I said it’s really hard to feel turned on when these are inhibitors for me. It sure makes me feel like an asshole, but I just can’t handle it. The argument ended and it seems we both still had our “sides” that weren’t being heard. I stopped trying to shower with him cause every time we do he has boogers come down onto his beard/neck/chest. I’ve brought up blowing my nose in the shower, multiple times, stating how it really clears me out and how he should do it too. But it never changes. I typically don’t say anything, just do my best to ignore it, cause it really is an everyday thing. Until the other night, when we went to an event. Soon after getting there a buddy of his comes up, they chit chat, and after he leaves I notion to bf to wipe his nose. He does. This happens again with another buddy. And again with another buddy. And then one more time, but it was just us. He makes a comment like, wtf is happening dude jeez, and then proceeds to blow his nose into the chest of the new shirt I just bought him. Once he was done he smushed it to his chest and said “ugh I can feel it.” And in that very moment I just felt my attraction die a little bit. He did not shower before the event, so he was really dirty from work, and obviously had lots of boogers. I genuinely feel like an asshole that this is icking me out so much, cause again we do both work blue collar jobs, I’m very dirty at the end of my shifts too. But I rarely even let him see me like that, let alone try to have sex like that. There’s some other things that affect my attraction too, like the sexual comments he makes aren’t one I’m a fan of, but whenever I express frustration it’s always met by “it’s just a joke.” His house is often very dirty, and for a while I was cleaning it consistently, a couple hours every week even though I don’t live there. But it was just killing it for me. There were times he wouldn’t even recognize I cleaned the whole house and just start throwing his stuff everywhere again. He’s pushed for me to move in but there’s just no way, I think that’d kill our relationship for real. I guess I’m just wondering if I’m a big ass for feeling this way. He’s a really smart guy who does really good work. Hard work. I barely even know what he’s saying to me when he explains his work half the time. But I do not want to feel like a mommy who has to tell her boyfriend to blow his nose multiple times a day. AITAH????? And if so how do I resolve the problem anyhow 🙃
Posted Aug 5, 2025, 10:01 PM UTC