8 Traits You Value In A Man As You Age

When you date in college and in your early 20s, you focus mainly on how a guy treats you one-on-one, how much fun you have together, and if the sex is good. But as you get older, you realize that there is so much more that goes into having a great relationship and connection with someone. It’s the little things. Here are traits you value in a man as you age.

He’s helpful 

When you’re young, as long as he opens doors for you, offers to pick you up from the airport, and picks up the check sometimes, you think he is generous and kind.

He helps those in need

As you get older, you choose not to waste time with anyone who won’t be kind and helpful to you, but you also want a man who helps others. You want to see that he gives money to the homeless sometimes, that he volunteers his free time, or that he helps his family and friends out on his one day off. You want to be associated with someone who is empathetic to the world–not just you.

He calls his parents for their scheduled chats 

When you’re young, if you hear your boyfriend talking in a warm and loving manner while on the phone with his mom, you are over the moon. You think it is so adorable. What a great son, right?

He goes out of his way to check up on his family

As you age, you notice whether or not a man goes out of his way to have a relationship with his family. It seems immature if he just accepts the calls but never makes them. Calling his parents means he doesn’t just receive love and support from his family, but he offers it as well.

He cares about his body 

In your 20s, you envy that a guy can order stacks of ribs and eat nothing but frozen burritos at home. But somehow he manages to still keep his body together by hitting the gym regularly.

He cares about his health so he can stick around

As you age, it’s not cute to watch a guy eat pizza every night. You find it attractive when a man does some vague version of calorie counting, balances his meals, and knows exactly how many times he went out for fast food in a month because he can count it on one hand.

He doesn’t drink excessively

You thought nothing of it when your 20-something boo got trashed on the weekends, and “casually drank” each weeknight. You thought of a couple of beers as a quiet night in and assumed that on the weekends, he just liked to have fun.

He has interests outside of drinking

Nowadays you really value laughing your a** off with a guy who only drinks occasionally. He’s someone you can do daytime activities with because he isn’t totally hung over all the time. You’re into museums and hikes now because you’re not sitting in dark and seedy bars all the time.

He is clean enough 

You expected nothing less than an explosion of trash and clothes each time you walked into your college boyfriend’s dorm room. You enjoyed teasing him for his messiness and cleaned up after him here and there.

You appreciate a man who cleans up after himself

By now you’ve learned that walking through piles of dirty laundry and having to tell a grown man to clean up gets exhausting–and it kills the mood. You love a man who respects his space, as well as your own and keeps it tidy.

He keeps good friends around

In your 20s it didn’t matter what kind of people your guy hung out with; you weren’t dating his friends after all. If some of his friends were jerks, you just thought it was funny or you paid them no mind.

His good friends become your friends

Now you realize the friends a man keeps are a direct reflection of his own personality traits. If his friend is a jerk, part of him is too.

He tries to put on clothes that match

It was okay when your college boyfriend wore sweats every day. You didn’t really have anywhere fancy to go together aside from the “swanky” taco restaurant on the weekends.

He knows how to dress

You would never judge a man who didn’t know how to dress, but good God is it hot when a man does know how to dress. So hot.

He doesn’t mind babies and dogs

It was cute when your young boyfriend played with a friend’s dog or held a family member’s baby.

Now he must love kids and dogs

But today you will write a man off if he does not interact with the baby or puppy in the room.