.
Sometimes, being taken advantage of in this manner is not neccesarily down to evilness but can be attributed to laziness. Once she gets into a routine of being cared for, if she's not very disciplined, she'll end up taking advantage of you and avoid responsibilities. Having your first child is a major step up the ladder and if she doesn't make the leap, she will find the task of coming to terms with her responsibilities that much harder.

While I've never been in this situation, I do have a female friend who seemed to use me as a support for her self-esteem. There was nothing malicious about it - whenever I was on ICQ, she'd tell me her problems and I'd offer her virtual hugs and advice. While in the back of my mind I thought she might be getting too addicted to it, I realised that her life was going through a hell of a rough patch while mine was calm at the time - hence the mis-balance of shoulder-crying. We still occasionally chat but hardly much these days.

@BGB
I am indeed a rare breed.
I'm a man who likes hugging too. But I find that being large, I can be scary to some if I try to be touchy-feely. Methinx this touchy-feely stuff works best with people of petite frames.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Fri 6 Jun 2008, 11:07, Reply)