He’s definitely taking a step away from you. 😳 His abandonment issues may or may not explain his behavior, but they don’t excuse it. The reality is he’s just not ready. And after two years, I don’t think taking a step backwards is going to work for you.
There are a lot of men, who at age 27, are just not ready to get married. The trick is to weed them out before you get involved, if getting married by a certain date is what you have in mind for yourself. Your boyfriend may be one of those guys. Or, he may be easing out of the relationship altogether, one step at a time, without letting you in on the master plan. Faced with actually buying the ring, he may have realized this isn’t what he wants for himself.
Men who want to get married show certain signs, like introducing you to their friends, family and doing things as a couple, with other couples, instead of hanging out with singles. It sounds like your boyfriend has done all of those things. But….. his taking you ring shopping [i]before[/i] he proposed COULD indicate his not really wanting to be all in. 😕 When a guy is sure, and he knows you’ll say yes (which living with him definitely indicated), he’ll be so excited he’ll want to take the bull by the horns and go for it.
I think that moving in with him so soon in the relationship forced both of you to rush the playing house part of the relationship. If you’d dated for six or even nine months before moving in together, you might have gotten a better idea if this someone was “the one” — and he might have been able to recognize what a big step moving in together was, instead of moving in so soon in a rush of honeymoon bliss — when there’s no honeymoon in sight. 😮
Give yourself a timetable, but if he wants to move out, there’s little you can (or should) do to stop him. 😳
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