On support in relationships

In the Real Housewives of Atlanta finale, producers tortured us through 90 minutes of "is she gonna go through with it?" drama. Worse, throughout the whole season they subjected us to the emotional roller coaster of dating Peter Thomas, her now husband.

In anticipation of the finale, Peter did an interview that nailed one of my biggest relationship pet peeves: that to be supportive, you have to encourage your partner's every whim. I should add, though, that I hate many things about this man as we've seen him on TV and this is only a drop in the bucket.

Here's the line: "If I need her to do something for me again, she better step up. That's part of her duty as a wife...It's my duty as a husband to provide whatever support to [help] her go forward."

False. And, as a failed entrepreneur, I feel like he should know the value of learning as soon as possible that his ideas are shitty. You know what supportive people do? Tell the folks they love the honest truth, even when that's bad news. Further, people who try to assert that the only way to support them is to tell them that they're right are self-centered and, I'm willing to push that further, remiss in loving their partners appropriately. There's a baseline assumption that Peter's making here: his ideas are always categorically superior to Cynthia's. It's gross.

And that's all I have to say about that.