Boyfriend (33M) thinks I (29F) am too negative and critical.
I’m struggling with something my boyfriend (who I have been seeing for 4 months) said recently, and I’d love to get some perspective. For context, I’m a corporate lawyer by profession.
My boyfriend has this habit of describing some of his friends as "resourceful." For example, he called his doctor friend resourceful because she can help with medical advice, and another friend resourceful because they had a house near his college. While I didn’t love the idea of categorizing friends this way, I brushed it off. But then he casually mentioned that I’m not a resourceful person. This really hurt me, and I’ve been obsessing over it. I started questioning why he would think this about me, especially since I work hard.
On top of that, our relationship hasn’t been going well. He recently told me that I focus too much on negative things, that I’m overly critical, and that I don’t appreciate or acknowledge the good things he does. He even said something along the lines of "no other girl would be this critical or overthink things the way you do."
Hearing these things from someone I care about deeply has been really painful, and it’s left me questioning myself and our relationship. I know I have a tendency to dwell on negative remarks (like the resourceful one above), but I can’t shake the feeling that he doesn’t like me.
How do I handle this? Am I overreacting? Is this something I can work on, or does this point to deeper issues in our relationship?
TL;DR: Boyfriend thinks I’m overly critical, negative, and don’t say enough nice things.