My (22f) boyfriend (23m) has no responsibilities in life
I feel like I’m slowly losing my sanity over this.
My boyfriend (23) and I (F22) have been together for almost a year now . Overall, I absolutely adore him. He’s caring, sweet, kind. he’s genuinely a great guy. As sad as it sounds, I feel like I love and care about him but my brain is trying to stop me from being really, deeply in love and seeing him as "the one“ because of some patterns in his life. and it‘s really taking a toll on me.
As a boyfriend he‘s amazing, but some things about him are questionable. He grew up to a rich family, which to this day, pays for his rent, I don’t know the extent of their wealth but it’s enough for his parents to give him a sum of 1500€ a month + rent + pay for anything he asks. I don’t think he ever worked a job. And this lack of purpose, which we’ve talked about in the past, is making him feel purposeless. He has hobbies like making music etc, but in my opinion that’s very ambiguous of a profession (art in general) unless you do it with specific intentions, which he is not doing.
Every day for him, usually consists of waking up at noon and just doing whatever he wants, which is fun but at some point, watching from the side can be frustrating, especially because I’m working full time, supporting myself completely independently ever since I’m 21, after moving to a country all by myself.
One thing is that he just doesn’t really have anything going for him, but he’s just so much fun to be with, that I don’t want to end it with him over this. Life feels good with him until I remember there’s a real life that exists - one day I’ll want kids. One day I’ll want my own place, I can’t see him being the "man" and helping with that. But maybe I’m wrong. And he says he wants these things too, one day.
The bigger issue is that I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, two years ago he unwillingly moved here with his family , and he doesn’t speak the language nor wants to stay here, but he is also not making a change, although we do talk about it from time to time now.
Also, the fact that his family has money and will continue to support him until probably for the rest of his life, is making me, in a way, want to excuse him more and in a way, as bad as it sounds, could provide me with a safety net which I never had (Im not with him for his money, just to be clear, it’s just a plus)
In reality, It’s just hard to imagine my future with him when he’s kind of letting life happen to him, because there’s some sort of safety I want to feel in a relationship, that my partner and I are moving the same direction, whatever it may be.
Before we got into a relationship, I told him it’s a deal breaker for me to be with someone who doesn’t have some sort of ambition, and he was mentioning that it’s a problem he’s working on, because in his words, he is "spoiled" and that it’s going to change, and almost 8 months later, he is still unemployed.
It’s just hard because I don’t want to one day move in with my partner and we don’t really talk about "serious future things“ and maybe it’s because he isn’t yet living serious life, and that’s a little unsettling for me. What if he never will?
Now for the thing that’s actually hard.
He is amazing, he is so emotionally mature and I love him so dearly. It is a deal breaker, in some way. but I feel like it’s almost a grey zone, and I keep telling myself he can change and that maybe it’s not that bad, because he’s different from other "unemployed“ people because the family has money. And I feel like I’m going crazy. Of course he mentions that he wants to be with me on the future and that he sees me together. But I have no idea how that would look like? I can’t even imagine because I haven’t seen him work for anything.
He says he is working on it and it’s almost like he is helpless. I don’t know how to help either and I can’t.
How can we move forward in the relationship?
Posted Jul 23, 2026, 10:11 AM UTC