Independence and Interdependence: Please comment!

Thanks to the caller who called in to yesterday’s show on “Independence and Interdependence”. (To hear the show from Cyber Monday, click here.) Apologies that I forgot to ask you your name! In this post, I’ll have to call you the "Cyber Monday Caller."

 

The Cyber Monday Caller has experienced that women don’t want the responsibility of making decisions, and asked what the statistics were (or what I thought they would be) around the percentage of women who feel they have or are subjecting themselves to their men’s whims and don’t feel it necessary to change anything, and they’ll continue to complain about it to their friends, behind their partner’s back. Hmmm…

 

I’ll be honest - I don’t know what the statistics are, and I didn’t feel it was my place to do the speculation. But I’ll be keeping an eye open for some supporting stats for this now. (When I find something, I’ll post it here.) Is it really a “big hullaballoo about nothing,” as the Cyber Monday Caller says? (If you're listening to the show archive, it comes up around minute 35:00.)

 

If you listen to the show, you’ll hear the Cyber Monday Caller speculate that 90% of women would keep this dynamic as it is: “So what makes you say this like it’s a major problem?” he asks. I personally think the percentage is much, much less, and the number of women I’ve encountered in my experience who would like to assert themselves with better effect in relationships of all kinds is closer to the reverse.

So, fellow Soulmates, here’s your chance to tell me (AND The Cyber Monday Caller):

• Have you ever given over decision-making power to a partner when you’ve been in a relationship?
• Was it a good or bad experience for you? What did you learn from the experience?
• How many of you feel that the giving over of decision-making power to one’s partner is a common relationship problem - or not?

I’m looking forward to lots of your comments & thoughts. Enter your comments below.