Just broke up with my boyfriend, but he still wants to be friends?

[l0vergirl]

I broke up with my Boyfriend 3 days shy of our 1 year dating anniversary.

We've recently graduated from college, and having been dating long distance for 3 months.

I'd been feeling burdened by having to keep him happy, and even if it wasn't necessarily true, felt like he had to approve of the things I was doing. I barely went out, and when we were together we just hung out one-and-one. I knew that my heart wasn't in it anymore (maybe because of the timing...I'm only 22.), so I had to end it.

He was devastated. He still wants to be friends.

I could see it happening some day in the future, but not anytime soon. I told him so, but I'm worried that he's going to cling to this and not genuinely try to go on with his life. Should I try to cut him out completely?

[PsychMike]

This is totally your call here. Just consider each outcome. If you keep him as a friend he will almost certainly be clingy and try to get you back and what not. So that may not be the best decision. If you cut him out completely then he will take it kind of hard, but then again you won't have to deal with all of his clingy ex ways. I would personally tell him that you don't want to keep in contact with him for at least a couple months so you can have time to move on and so he can as well. Then in the amount of time you set don't respond to any contact he tries to make with you. After the amount of time and after you feel like you have moved completely on then you can respond to his contact. Just make sure he knows that you are just talking as friends and the conversations should only be as friends nothing more unless you decide differently in the future. Gonna be a bumpy road, but I know you can do it.

[Chipper]

Hey LG, yeah. I'm afraid I've been in his shoes a couple of times. The fact is if you were both really truly friends prior to the relationship you wouldn't even have to discuss this. If he loves you he's got to find other things to do. It will be miserable, but he's got to purge himself of you because if he plays it right as your friend the truth is you can't just open up and carry on a conversation while sitting in the park with a hunka-hunka-of burning love if X-bo is hanging around and texting you all the time. Break the chain.

[msbossy]

i think you do need to cut him out for a while till your feelings heal then you two can be friends and I said F-R-I-E-N-D-S- no sex on the side.