Is it okay to be in a relationship where your boyfriend says he loves you, and that is true, but he has never shown it with gifts or surprises?

Tagged:

Working on a relationship is difficult but possible. I’d suggest sitting him down and explaining to him 1) what you’re expecting from him in terms of romance, and 2) why you need him to do these things. How they make you feel. It’s a bit of a negotiation, you may find out in this discussion that he has needs that you aren’t meeting too. If you both can agree to work on it then congrats, you have successfully worked on your relationship.

The biggest challenge here is coming up with language that’s both honest and convincing. When I need to work on my relationship, I have to think really carefully about what I want and how I try to convey it, because if I don’t, it tends to just fly over her head. She’s not from the US and so she just has different ideas about love. If you have a cross-cultural boundary to deal with, it makes things a lot more difficult.