They're leaving a path of destruction in their wake, not to mention the huge amounts of disappointment from girls who believe that relationships should be a complete and utter happily ever after. I love a meme as much as the next person, but there's one that I just can't take anymore - Couple Goals.
A quick Twitter search of the hashtag #RelationshipGoals, and you find one guy who takes his girlfriend to dinner each month for their anniversary, a girl being surprised with a huge teddy bear outside the Eiffel Tower, and a couple kissing in the middle of a busy street while randomly holding dozens of balloons - that's just being selfish, get out of the way!
In long-term relationships, mountains of flowers and extravagant surprises tend to be rare and reserved for a special occasion. FYI, if I was getting a bouquet of flowers every week I'd start to get suspicious.
These memes are also conveniently always placed in an Insta-worthy location: Paris, London, Bali - what are the guys from Doncaster meant to do to please?
We've got to the point in society where a selfie on Instagram is needed to prove your love - and yet, even getting my boyfriend to take a picture involves a lot of sighing, and the selfie always results in one shot that only one of us approves on. In the selfie and in our lives we are constantly at odds, and that's fine with me.
We don't need to be "in sync" to have the perfect relationship. We have different ideas, different fitness schedules (he exercises, I don't), and many different interests. He likes computer games, I like reality TV. When it comes to cleaning, his efficiency constantly battles my love of procrastination, and we have weekly debates about what Deliveroo to order. We are the opposite of #RelationshipGoals and I'm pretty happy with that.
FYI, relationship goals are super unrealistic - you don't want to start resenting your partner for not surprising you with a Tiffany's bag every weekend. Most of the people and texts in these memes never even happened, they're a photo shoot! Also, the subjects of the "relationship goals" are always as pretty as a Victoria's Secret model or as fit as The Rock, and you know they're super unrealistic and been photoshopped, but still, you think, WHY DON'T I LOOK LIKE THAT? AM I NOT 'GOALS' ENOUGH? OH FAB, HE'S GOING TO LEAVE ME FOR A HADID.
You can't judge a relationship by one cheesy picture. Instead of getting caught up in "couple goals", we need a dose of reality. News flash, it's not going to be baths full of roses and dancing in the back garden with the hose pipe on every evening (who even wants to do that??).
Have goals, have aspirations, but don't live through others' social media posts and let fairy tale couples influence your relationship because all you'll get is a whole lot of disappointment. Brad and Angelina were 'goals' for years but look what happened to them. Anyway, who wants to have a relationship like someone else's?