Man Child

Man-Child: An adult-looking man with the mental capacity of a child when it comes to certain subjects. *

In almost every woman's life there will come a time when she will find herself interacting with a man-child. Whether it is in the work place, in a social setting, or the person she finds herself dating. Man-children are immensely frustrating because it is not always apparent that beneath this tough rugged manly appearance is the maturity level of a 14 year-old boy. So women can sometimes be tricked and not realize until a decent ways into the relationship that this man is not the adult that he appears to be. Dealing with a man-child is hard because children know that they are children however this man really believes that he is a fully functional adult male whose mental age matches his physical appearance. A man-child is not always ready for a mature relationship so it can feel like something that you already went through, maybe back in the good old high school days. He acts one way around his friends, always thinks he knows best, and is not always the most reliable of people.
When working with a man-child a woman finds herself having the balance being mature and over stepping into condescending bitchood. It is hard for women in the working world to be assertive and tell a man when he is acting like an adolescent and making things more difficult. A layer of complexity is added when this man is your superior. Immaturity in the work place makes working a little more difficult because there is a threat of distraction or of hostile inter-office contact. 
When dating a man-child, things become even more difficult. You immediately assume either the motherly role or the bitchy girlfriend role. You are forced to constantly correct the things that your boyfriend is doing that appear rude or deviate from traditional social norms. Little comments that he would make while with his drunken friends are not appropriate for alone time with your significant other. For example- this weekend a girlfriend told me that her SO was rude to a woman on a bus, while he thought he was being funny the woman was offended. While in front of his friends a cheeky comment like that could be seen as funny or flirtatious but with a girlfriend the comment comes off as condescending. When my friend got annoyed by it her man had to ask what do I say to make it better? She responded, "I'm sorry and I won't do something like that again", he repeated the statement. This was a prime example of needing to mother in a relationship. A 22-year-old man should know that if he offends his girlfriend all he needs to say is I am sorry that I did something that would upset you, it was not my intention. However the man-child does not know how to do this, he needs to be told. 
This process is hard because as an adult you do not want to be parenting your boyfriend by saying that wasn't ok and this is what needs to be done to make it better. You also don't want to come off as a high maintenance girlfriend by being constantly irritated by behavior that seems immature to you. He can also be inconsistent with phone calls or text messages which in turn can make a woman feel like he just simply does not care. 
It can be complicated and difficult because in some ways this man is incredible and he values some great things but in other ways it feels more like work than a partnership. The issues that arise in this situation are difficult to navigate and should be handled with care. 








*My own made up definition for the purpose of writing this