Questions

I’ve had to break things off down two women in the recent years (one was a marriage was possibility) and still deep down respect them. That is I didn’t blame them for my decision and it was agonizingly difficult decision to make. They were decent women and did nothing fundamentally wrong (e. g. cheating, abuse, lying about major issues)

But I think hard before major decisions and I knew there would be likely major trouble with both women in the future. So I knew they would be heartbroken but I did everything respectfully as possible. I did everything face to face while making eye contact and telling them they didn’t do anything wrong as a person. Told I respected them and I meant it. But it was the decision I had to make.

But I never had woman give me anything remotely close to that kind of respect when I got dumped. Instead I was once told straight to my face by a girl who I casually dated (and considered making it more serious) that “When I like someone I well tell them”. She decided to break it off with me and inferred she never told me she “liked me”. She then had f*cking nerve to ask if we could still be “friends”. I told her fuck no of course.

I also was (initially) respectfully dumped by another girl who a few weeks later literally told me “tough luck you’re an ex” when I informed her about a serious health issue I had at the time.

I’ve also had another girl completely ghost me after almost dating for a year after a minor argument (the relationship was getting rocky but still).

Obviously 99% of the time you will never actually “like” anyone you break up with. Rare exception is some sort of kind of tragic romance where you break up with person you “like” because you are pledged to marry someone else.

However you can respect someone you break up with if they never did anything to intentional harm you (abuse, cheating, etc). But from my experience women usually equate likeability with respect.