Should I leave my partner of 5.5 years

Hi I hope you can help me an offer me some advice. I have been feeling very guilty lately for just thinking this. My now fiance (21) and I (20) have been together for 5.5 years. I met him on my 15th birthday and he proposed to me September 2013. He is the best partner anyone could ask for...very kind and caring, never flirts with other girls and always does right by me. Sometimes his immaturity frustrates me, as does the way he speaks to me when we have an argument. He snaps and swears and says hurtful things, even though he doesn't mean what he says and apologizes afterwards. I have told him numerous times that I can't handle is behavior when we argue and that i am going to put up with being disrespected like that. We have our wedding venue booked for 2016 and have spoken about babies, buying a house and the future. Lately though, I am worried that I am making the wrong choice. Because we started dating as kids, we have never as adults had to flirt, go on dates and impress each other. We haven't been in that situation before so we don't do that with each other. I feel as if I haven't ever had time to myself and live life on my own. When I have gone out with friends, I have been flirted with by other men and it makes me so jealous that I don't get that attention. I sometimes wish that I could have met Ryan later in life. I think I just need some advice...I don't know what to do. I think I want to break up with him, but I don't want to break his heart. A few months ago I told him that i wanted to be flirted with, etc and he said he would make an effort and he still hasn't. I would hate to get married and have children and have these same feelings come up again. What do you think I should do? I feel like I am missing out on so much. Many thanks, Erin I haven't used my real account as my partner has access to my real one. Not that he checks it...but just incase!

If you feel you have missed out on a single young adult life because you have been with this man since 15, then don't marry him. You both are maturing and it's no sin to have the need to discover others out there if you are single, but unless you are 100% happy with this man, and you are prepared to mature together with him, then you owe it to him and to yourself to end a 5.5 year relationship.

I agree with Manalone. You're simply not ready to settle down so soon. You haven't had enough relationship sampling/experimentation which is important for providing an intricate, hands-on backdrop for self-exploration and identity-formation purposes. How the heck can you share yourself with A.N. Other if you aren't even sure yet who you are and how you tick. Share WHO? HOW? You don't, therefore, need to try to augment your justification like it's not valid on its own by stating that he gets mouthy and insulting during rows. Most people say hurtful things they don't mean in the heat of an argument. It's them expressing how hurt and upset THEY feel (and 'puking it out' via extreme words and phrases). People who don't care thus don't feel upset at the fact you're both in extreme discord, tend to say, 'Yeah, whatever' and refuse to be drawn in. You're GOING to break his heart. That one is, I'm afraid, unavoidable. But he'll get over it. Plus, fare more preferable to go through that short-term burst of pain than his settling for a woman whose mind isn't yet even ripe enough TO give consent of effectively handing her life over, only to then realise X years down the line that there was meanwhile some woman out there he was meant to have been with instead, and/or that HE 'now' has itchy feet due to never having done enough sampling around. So you'll be doing him a favour in the long run, for which - at the latest, as soon as he's stumbled across his true for-life partner - he'll be very grateful to you. So you don't need to feel guilty. You haven't done anything wrong. Neither has he, really, apart from taking yours and his relationship that bit too much for granted. This is just the way the not-yet-fully-baked cookie crumbles. You do, however, have to put your big girl knickers on and face the music...which means sitting him down for the Dear John speech (as kindly but firmly as you can), NOT typing out his real-life name inside the opening post of a thread that, according to your own admission, there's a very great chance he might see. ;-)

(Sorry, Suzie - crossover) ...agree with Manalone and Susie.