Telling someone you don't want to meet him
I'm having trouble with a guy who can't accept that I don't want to meet up with him again. Since telling him I don't want to see him anymore, he's texted me 23 times in less than 3 weeks asking me to meet him. I've tried saying no and I've tried ignoring his messages, but he keeps asking. A few days ago I agreed to meet him with one of my other friends present, which he seemed happy about, but straight afterwards he started asking to meet me again on my own. In the past I've always given in to him when he kept pressuring me to see him, and I'm worried that I'll do the same this time if he doesn't stop texting me. Is there a way of saying "no" which will convince him I really mean it, without being rude or hurtful towards him?
BLOCK HIS NUMBER! This is harassment.
And no, there's no way to do it without being rude or hurtful. He's beyond that point. Tell him right out, "I don't like you, you make me uncomfortable, I don't want to meet you, I won't ever want to meet with you again. I only did so in the past to be polite, but you have now exceeded my comfort levels."
Sweetleaf
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And no, there's no way to do it without being rude or hurtful. He's beyond that point. Tell him right out, "I don't like you, you make me uncomfortable, I don't want to meet you, I won't ever want to meet with you again. I only did so in the past to be polite, but you have now exceeded my comfort levels."
Well I mostly agree except......it would not be harassment unless he has directly been told 'no i don't want to see you any more.' now if the OP has been keeping that part to herself and just coming up with excuses not to meet up, then naturally he will keep attempting......so if the OP has been clear and this is continuing it is harassment......otherwise I would think its more a misunderstanding on the guys part.
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And no, there's no way to do it without being rude or hurtful. He's beyond that point. Tell him right out, "I don't like you, you make me uncomfortable, I don't want to meet you, I won't ever want to meet with you again. I only did so in the past to be polite, but you have now exceeded my comfort levels."
Well I mostly agree except......it would not be harassment unless he has directly been told 'no i don't want to see you any more.' now if the OP has been keeping that part to herself and just coming up with excuses not to meet up, then naturally he will keep attempting......so if the OP has been clear and this is continuing it is harassment......otherwise I would think its more a misunderstanding on the guys part.
Just to be clear, I didn't mean "harassment" according to the legal defintion, I meant it according to the common-sense, societally-expected definition. If I get into a car accident with you and you get out of your car and start screaming at me, that is harassment.
I agree she needs to be more direct (obviously), but a text a day for 3 weeks with no results is a clear sign that she's not interested. Unless there's more that she's not telling us, like she's responded, "I don't know, let me check my schedule, and I'll let you know" he has stepped over the line.
I'm pretty zero tolerance when it comes to this stuff. 9 times out of 10 a *very* clear direct message does the job, and you never hear from him again.
Sweetleaf
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Looks like she already has told him, "no".
Yes what I am wonder is if she's told him she does not want to see him period, or whether it was no to just specific meet up requests. I mean I just need more information to give any adequate advice should I have any. It varies based on the answer to that question.
If she has made it clear she is done and does not want to see him anymore, then yes it is harrasment and she should block the number.....otherwise the first thing I would suggest is being direct about not wanting to see him anymore. Now I certainly would be upset if someone I liked suddenly wanted to cut off contact......but I don't know the reasons why the OP wants to do that in the first place and I can't really judge that.
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Sweetleaf
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And no, there's no way to do it without being rude or hurtful. He's beyond that point. Tell him right out, "I don't like you, you make me uncomfortable, I don't want to meet you, I won't ever want to meet with you again. I only did so in the past to be polite, but you have now exceeded my comfort levels."
Well I mostly agree except......it would not be harassment unless he has directly been told 'no i don't want to see you any more.' now if the OP has been keeping that part to herself and just coming up with excuses not to meet up, then naturally he will keep attempting......so if the OP has been clear and this is continuing it is harassment......otherwise I would think its more a misunderstanding on the guys part.
Just to be clear, I didn't mean "harassment" according to the legal defintion, I meant it according to the common-sense, societally-expected definition. If I get into a car accident with you and you get out of your car and start screaming at me, that is harassment.
I agree she needs to be more direct (obviously), but a text a day for 3 weeks with no results is a clear sign that she's not interested. Unless there's more that she's not telling us, like she's responded, "I don't know, let me check my schedule, and I'll let you know" he has stepped over the line.
I'm pretty zero tolerance when it comes to this stuff. 9 times out of 10 a *very* clear direct message does the job, and you never hear from him again.
Well if I was unaware someone wanted to cut off all contact with me, then I would probably be wondering if they are ok and be unable to sleep because I'm so worried about it. Not everyone takes these sorts of 'hints' so well so it is important to be direct. I mean why keep someone on edge for that long rather than just tell them you're not interested?
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I think this is the key part of her original post:
Sweetleaf
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I think this is the key part of her original post:
I know, but it also says...she agreed to meet up, and stuff like that so that is why I am questioning how direct she initially was, but I'll have to wait for the OP to get back to that as shes really the only one who knows whats going on and could probably explain if I am misunderstanding anything. I mean if you do tell someone you don't want to see them anymore...certainly do not agree to hang out again if they persist otherwise they are going to get mixed messeges. But yeah blocking is a good thing to do if someone will not stop texting you when you've asked them to.
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Thanks for your responses. I have told this guy that I don't want to see him anymore, but I think I did give him mixed messages by agreeing to meet him as long as my friend was there. I was trying to find a compromise between seeing him alone, which is what he wanted, and not seeing him at all, which is what I wanted. But I realise now by doing that I must have led him to hope that I would change my mind about seeing him alone again. If he contacts me again I will try to be clearer that I really don't want to meet him again.
I've been in a similar situation with the same guy nearly a year ago when I told him I didn't want to see him anymore. He carried on texting me for 5 months, even though I either refused to meet him or didn't respond to his messages at all. Even when I told him I had a boyfriend it didn't make any difference. In the end I did start seeing him again after I split up from my boyfriend and was feeling lonely. That was a mistake because it showed him that if he kept on persisting, I would change my mind eventually.
Unfortunately he's never wanted to take "no" for an answer. Before I met up with him for the second time I was warned that he might be trouble so I cancelled our meeting, but even back then when he hardly knew me he kept texting until I said yes. I'm starting to wonder if he has aspergers too, which is why I don't want to be harsh towards him as he may not understand how he's making me feel. I know I pester my friends sometimes even when they don't answer my messages so to some extent I can see this situation from his point of view.
I've been in a similar situation with the same guy nearly a year ago when I told him I didn't want to see him anymore. He carried on texting me for 5 months, even though I either refused to meet him or didn't respond to his messages at all. Even when I told him I had a boyfriend it didn't make any difference. In the end I did start seeing him again after I split up from my boyfriend and was feeling lonely. That was a mistake because it showed him that if he kept on persisting, I would change my mind eventually.
Unfortunately he's never wanted to take "no" for an answer. Before I met up with him for the second time I was warned that he might be trouble so I cancelled our meeting, but even back then when he hardly knew me he kept texting until I said yes. I'm starting to wonder if he has aspergers too, which is why I don't want to be harsh towards him as he may not understand how he's making me feel. I know I pester my friends sometimes even when they don't answer my messages so to some extent I can see this situation from his point of view.
I applaud your attempt at being kind, but I still think you need to establish and maintain firm boundaries. Mixed messages are what lead men to think, "b*****s be crazy." I'm not saying you carry the reputation of the whole female side on your shoulders, but I do think we need to recognize how much of our socialization (as females) trains us to be "pleasant" as a default.
Like I said, I'm zero-tolerance, but that's just me.
I wish you well in this. I would also have blocked Mr. Five-Months-of-Texting. Maybe it's like you said, you like the attention when you have a gap otherwise. That's kind of a mixed message to send, too.
You have been kind enough!
Here's the thing, if you give him a little, he will want a lot. So you have to give him nothing. This is a man who either:
1) is a jerk who won't leave women alone OR 2) has no social manners and doesn't understand when to let go.
The thing to do in either case is make it clear that you will not have contact with him.
You have ignored his messages. He won't let go. I would say:
"I've made it clear I don't want to have anything to do with you. If you message me again, I'll report you as a stalker to the police."
Even if the police can't do anything about it, they'll still go to his house and tell him to leave you alone, which would be reaaaaaaaaally embarrassing for him! If he has any common sense, that would be enough for him to learn his lesson. Which means you did a good thing, he won't do this to other women.
Another thing you can do is call your cell phone service's customer service, and ask them to block his number.
Either way you would be doing him a favor. Aspergers is NOT an excuse for bad behavior. You've made it clear you don't want to see him, he hasn't learned. Whether he's a jerk or an Aspie, it's a lesson he has to learn. Help him learn it.
In the last two hours I've received another 3 texts from him asking me to meet him tomorrow, so it looks like he isn't going to stop. Even if I manage to resist the pressure to meet him for now, it's possible that a few months down the line if I feel lonely again I would be grateful he's still contacting me and would end up going to see him again. So I do need to prevent him contacting me. I wouldn't go to the police because he's a Muslim and there could be serious repercussions for him with his family as I imagine he wouldn't be allowed any contact with a non-Muslim woman. Blocking his number would be a good idea but I wouldn't want him to know I'd blocked him because I'd be upset if someone did that to me. Maybe if I change my number he would just think my phone was broken and wouldn't know I'd done it because of him. I know what it's like to do the wrong thing in social situations, that's why I'm trying to see it from his point of view.
I appreciate all the advice, it's interesting to hear the opinions of other females about this situation.
I met a guy years ago in 2007. He was a creepy guy. He pressured me to meet him so I did. What he made me do to him made me really uncomfortable and also the fact he didn't want to walk around the mall because it was "boring" and I did not enjoy being with him and I was so glad when it was time for me to go to work so he drove me there and dropped me off. Then online he kept talking dirty to me and then when he messaged me months later, he knew I already had a boyfriend and he still kept talking about wanting to have sex with me. Then after I was married he still talked about wanting to do it and then invited to have my husband go to bed with us and my husband asked me "is he gay?"
I tried to be clear with him and direct and told him he is a pig but he wouldn't stop so I blocked him finally.
About two years later he sends me two emails. One was how he hasn't seen me online so how have I been. I ignored it. The second one he sent me was saying he had a question about Asgerper's and if I am still using that email address. I thought about if I should respond or not but then decided against it. I mean if he has a question about it, go online and ask, that is what autism forums are for. I never told him I had it but he must have done a search on my email and saw me on one of the autism forums and figured it out.
I was stupid to meet up with him and I never met up with him again. His company with me was boring and also the fact creepy because of what he made me do to him. Since he had a question about AS, I wonder if he had it too or something? Maybe it be about where he can go get tested for it or diagnosed or asking me what it's like to have it or if me sending him mixed signals had anything to do with it. I don't know if I sent him any mixed signals. But who knows what questions he had about it.
But I am glad I listened to myself finally and blocked him and made myself to not ever meet him again. Sometimes you have to judge and not keep giving someone a benefit of the doubt because you have to draw the line somewhere and just assume they are dirty and creepy after you have been honest and upfront with them. I mean what is so hard to understand that I am married and won't have sex with him?
I think you definitely did the right thing by not answering his emails. He was probably asking about aspergers so he had an excuse to talk to you again. Like you say, if he'd wanted to find out about it there are plenty of places online to read about aspergers. If you'd replied, he would probably have taken the chance to try to pressure you again into having sex with him. You were right not to give him the benefit of the doubt because he made you do things you didn't want to do and he had no right to do that.
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