Partner or Provider?

After my Jazzercise class this morning, a woman was talking to me about her 29-year-old son. He's dating a girl, she said, who is a registered nurse and is in school getting a master's degree. She eventually wants to be a doctor.

That's great, I said.

My son, she told me, works for a security company and does some club promoting on the side. But he's not going to settle down with her.

Why not, I asked.

Well, he doesn't feel accomplished around her, she said.

I listened.

She tried to explain: "Have you read Steve Harvey's book? The second one?"

No, I confessed.

"Well, in it he says a REAL man does 3 things for his lady: He's a protector, a provider and professes his love for her in public," she said. "My son doesn't think he can be a good provider at this time."

I understood. Her son didn't want to commit to a young lady because he thought she was too ambitious. He didn't feel BIG enough around her.

"You know you have to lift a man's ego," she said.

I could tell she really liked the young lady and was a bit disappointed with her son: "I know at some point you have to let your child grow up and make their own mistakes," she said.

But I realized as a person gets older and matures they want different things.

For example, as I get closer to 40 some women in my age group would like to have a man who is a provider (though they've been on their own for most of their life) and others just want a partner.


Me? Right now, I just want someone to rub my feet (LOL !)

What about you?
Do you want a provider or a partner?
Have your wants changed as you've gotten older? If so, how?