gawd I hate threads like this...

1. You cannot make blanket statements about either gender. Every woman and every man are individuals with their own issues, blessings, needs, and expectations. What is needed and works in a relationship with one, will not work or be needed with someone else.

2. No one WANTS to have a bad relationship. There are reasons, not excuses, that some people, men and women alike, suck at relationships.

3. If you are having the same problem with every person you try to have a relationship with - then most likely, the problem is YOU.

OP - why would you need to be stern with someone you are trying to date? I, for one, would tell any man who tries to be stern with me to go fuck himself. I don't need a father at this point in my life - I'm an adult. And no one steps all over you unless you let them.

There is no such thing as "what women want". You need to get to know the individual in each relationship and discover what is needed to have a relationship with THAT person.

And if this is your experience with every woman you have a relationship with, then I suggest you take a long hard look at yourself and figure out what YOU are doing to create this dynamic and why you keep hooking up with the same kind of woman that obviously is not your type.