I have always struggled to find a partner who checks the basic boxes - a few shared interests, balanced housework, equitable contribution, an open line of two-way, respectful communication, and honesty. Those are simple and foundational, yet nearly impossible qualities to find nowadays it seems.
This time, instead of cutting off the disappointing partner, I offered him a spare room where he could pay rent and play video games to his heart's content, provided he cleans up all of his own messes. We have separate friends, separate hobbies, etc. and interact pretty infrequently. But it has been nice to have someone around to keep an eye on the cats, and occasionally we'll watch a show, but that's pretty much it.
I'm not dating anyone else either. I've just found that relegating his role to roommate has removed all my expectations of him, but i still benefit from the rent check and extra set of eyes on the house. Going on 1.5 years and he's finally decided it's time to move back home, but this has been an excellent experiment!
Get creative, gals!
Dinner is cheese and homemade flax crackers with pickled veggies, pepperoni, nuts, a ramen egg, and coconut chia pudding.
EDITED just to add a shout-out to the mods working overtime to remove the insane, angry comments left by "men" who really need to just go back to lurking from a safe distance lol.
And if you are a man and this hurt your feelers, maybe it's time for some self-reflection about what you are, or aren't, bringing to the proverbial table.