What Romance Movies Didn’t Tell You About Relationships

If you’re a woman, the chances are you’ve grown up watching Disney movies and other romantic movies believing that one day you’ll meet your prince charming and live happily ever after. We saw Cinderella go from rags to riches, Jasmine fall for a poor boy and Belle find love with a beast turned man. It created the illusion that no matter what struggles we face in life, we’d eventually meet that one man and life would be wonderful and beautiful with no problems. Only now after two million dates, one heartbreak and a trillion whatsapp messages are we realising that this isn’t true.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s possible to find that one man you love and spend the rest of your life with, but it’ll never be as easy as they make out in the movies. J.LO has probably appeared in most chick flicks over the years. It’s a basic story line; she’s happy alone, she finds someone, it gets complicated, they overcome it and live happily ever after. Let’s just take a moment to reflect on her actual love life and we’ll see she’s had it far from easy.

So why do we continue to follow these false hopes and ignore the truth? Your man will never be perfect. There I said it, it’s not easy to swallow but it’s the damn truth. I mean lets be real ladies, I’m sure Prince Charming never snored consistently in Cinderella’s ear and demanded she make him dinner.

No one ever tells you in the movies that you’ll have to compromise in a relationship. That you won’t always get your way and sometimes you’ll be wrong. I never once saw Eric tell Ariel that she wasn’t right about something and she needed to calm herself. Sure she made the ultimate compromise and turned herself into a human to be with the man she loved, but she got her happy ending. When I compromise with my boyfriend to share my precious chocolate, I never come out winning. Ariel clearly had it easy.

Real relationships come with trials and tribulations. It’s all about getting to know the person you’re with, trying to click with them and coexist together because you feel it’s worth it because you like one another. You have to take a part of you and give it to them, you must confer before you act, think twice before doing and always take into consideration their opinion. When I was single I just did whatever I pleased, I answered to no one and dealt with the consequences myself. Now just to be sure I ask my boyfriend what he thinks and his opinion weighs heavily on my decision. Sometimes it’s a hardship always having to run past things with your partner, other times it’s a blessing because you know you’ll always have someone there who wants the best for you and will only give you the right answer for yourself.

Another thing they never mention in the movies is how you’ll still be attracted to other people. I always believed that as soon as you meet that one person, all of a sudden other people just don’t exist. They all become ugly and you never even notice them. However, with social media being as big as it is, there are beautiful people surrounding me all the time. Not just through my phone screen either, but in person. Most of the time it isn’t a problem because they’re not trying to make moves on me. Occasionally though when they are, will power and strength comes into play. When you’re single you don’t even have to think about that, you can talk to whomever you choose, but being in a relationship changes that and sometimes it proves difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I’d never cheat. I decided to be with my boyfriend and build a future with him and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. It just doesn’t help when people see you as an accepted challenge when you tell them you have a partner. Every day there are new temptations and you have to continue to stay strong and remember why you’re in a relationship, even when your guy has pissed you off haha.

I no longer look to romance movies for advice on men or how to tell me a relationship should be. I lead my own path and I only watch those chick flicks when I’m having a chill day. Don’t get disheartened when you don’t meet Prince Charming because ‘Prince  You Make Me Happy’ will always be the better option.