Communication styles between him (M42) and me (F33) too different to function?
From the beginning of this relationship I knew that my partner and I have very different communication styles, habits and needs. It‘s something we openly discussed right away and both have worked to accomodate the other. He does not like to text much, he prefers phone calls and ideally meeting in person if there’s something longer to talk about. I am more prone to overcommunicate and since I‘m more anxious I have always needed certain assurances. I am also someone who can talk with friends and family for hours.
I think over three years (& living together) we both have gotten better at accommodating the other. I have learned not to read things into his monosyllabic replies and he has learned to stay in touch when we have to travel for work.
But now I‘m deeply upset because of the following situation:
He put a trip with his friends into our shared calendar a few weeks ago on two different weekends. I asked him about it and he said, they weren‘t sure yet when it would happen. I advocated for the earlier date, because that was during a business trip of mine and against the later trip, which would be one of the few weekends we would both be fully off in months (and one of the few opportunities for us to go away together). The earlier date came and went, no more updates, no more mentions, they didn‘t do anything. I accepted that the next one could still happen but doubted it.
Yesterday I text him to remind him I won‘t be home for dinner because I was out with friends (for the first time since August), which is when he suddenly texts back: „Okay have fun and see you Sunday, I‘ll be leaving with the boys!“
The trip was entered in the calendar as lasting from this Friday to Sunday, but I always assumed they would leave Friday evening because he can never get out of work early and for sure not take a day off. I had asked him about it a week ago and wasn‘t even sure they‘d do it because all the planning they had was „rent a hut somewhere in the mountains“.
He hadn‘t told me they‘d leave Thursady, even though we sat together Wednesday evening and talking about my plans to maybe visit family next week (a trip I thought I had to cancel when some admin issues came up, which he promised to fix for me „during the weekend“ so I could still go).
At that point I also still had no idea where they would be going. Their last trip was surfing in another country so my assumption was it could be anywhere.
I called him right away and he tried to argue that „it is in the calendar“ and that they would leave in the evening after work and he‘d work remotely from the vacation cottage they had rented. I repeated angrily that I still had no idea where that was but he went on trying to justify this at normal. I didn‘t ask again but said he should ask his friends if they think it‘s normal not to tell the person you live with when or where you are leaving to for three days and hung up.
I blocked him in a fit of anger and because my friends were walking towards me and I didn’t want to ruin the evening but unblocked him about twenty minutes later.
He never texted back or wrote until this morning when he wordlessly sent me the google maps location of their cottage.
Reddit, I really don‘t know what to do or how to react. I don‘t know what‘s normal anymore or how I should feel.
Posted Oct 10, 2025, 7:27 PM UTC