21 Easy Ways to Become a Better Boyfriend

Dating can be difficult to navigate. If you've been single for a while and are used to going through life like a lone wolf, it can be hard to put another person's needs before your own. And even if you've been in a relationship for a while, it's easy to get into a routine and stop doing the small things that made your girlfriend fall in love with you in the first place.

No matter where you're at in life and in love, there's always the chance to be a better partner to your woman. A recent Askreddit had people sharing cute anecdotes about their partners, so we decided to compile 21 small things you can do to become the kind of boyfriend your girlfriend will to brag to her friends about.

Just moved to US from South Africa. Although it is not winter yet, it is very cold for me. Whenever am showering, SO puts my PJs or night gown in the dryer for a few minutes to heat/warm it up:)

- ibabaka

He brushed the snow off my car and gets it all warm for me in the morning.

- H3rta 

On cold mornings when he goes to work early he fills a hot water bottle and puts it in bed with me to keep me warm.

- kiwiqueen81

It was cold, I was drunk, and he fed me Doritos in bed. It was the moment I knew I loved him.

- kittenteacher

My husband and I took a trip to Seattle when we were dating. I love sleeping in but he is an early bird. One morning he wakes up and jumps in a shower while I sleep in. I hear the shower turn on and instead of sleeping I rush to get ready and quietly leave the room. I ran to get coffee for the both of us to surprise him whe he got out of the shower.

I'm on the street of our hotel, a coffee in each hand, when I see him walking from the other side of the block back toward the hotel entrance with a coffee in each hand as well. We both had tried to surprise one another with coffee. He had turned on the shower to better surprise me and instead of the bathroom door locking I had heard the hotel door click shut. We were equal distance from the entrance to the hotel and both had a moment of non verbally confirming the situation.

It seriously felt like a scene from a cheesy rom com.

- noshakira

When I got totally trashed downtown one night hanging out with my friends, I called him to come get me, and he cycled to pick me up so I wouldn’t have to leave my car downtown overnight. Not only that, but when he arrived I was too drunk to direct him to the correct spot so he used some sort of magical echolocation involving a siren to find me and my car.

- HotPotatoTime

He was staying the week at my place, and would just hangout while I went to school. I was pretty stressed out that week and one morning we got into a disagreement that I had to leave in the middle of so I wasn’t late. Cue a terrible day. But, when I came home, I saw he had completely cleaned my room, organized my makeup, vacuumed, and even did me and my roommate’s dishes and took out our trash. Gave me a big hug and apologized, said he knew I was stressed, that he wasn’t making it easier on me, and that he knew my messy room had been weighing on me so the least he could do was take care of that. I love him.

- gm7794

It was our first Christmas together. I was working overnights at the time and had to work Christmas Eve through Christmas morning. We had been talking about family traditions and I mentioned in passing how stockings were my favorite part of Christmas morning. We had an open house at my house Christmas Eve, and when I got into my car (exhausted because I did not sleep that day) I saw that he had snuck one of my many stockings out of my house, filled it and left it on my front seat to find ....it made me smile heading into a crappy shift ❤️❤️❤️

- Katiep86

My husband is the only person I don't run and try to hide my panic attacks from. He helps ground me by squeezing me or reminding me that "everything is going to be ok". One Valentine's day he got a teddy bear with a button inside that has a recording of him saying it for when he can't be there. I cried like a baby, it was the sweetest present I've ever gotten. He works nights so when I have a rough day I tuck that bear in bed with me.

- CaptainWigglezz

About two years ago, I had to have a spontaneous foot surgery (long story) and he took a week off of work to spend with me while my parents went on the Las Vegas trip that they had booked a year prior and was non refundable. Also helped me take care of the new puppy we got right before my surgery. Then we went to Kings Island a few months later when I could walk again and he would sit with me when I couldn’t stand in a two hour line for a ride and our friends wanted to go. I’m marrying him this Saturday!!!!

- nicolemariesnapp

When my husband and I first started dating, we were on a pre-dinner walk and happened to pass by a shoe store. I had been looking for a specific style of boots (maroon, suede booties) and the perfect pair were in the window. I got super excited, but the store was closed. About a week later, I was having a rough day at work. I came home and the boots were waiting for me on the counter (he was staying at my place). He had taken a picture of the size of another pair of my shoes to show the girl working so he could get the sizing right. It's still one of the cutest things he's ever done.

- scannalach

Had a difficult day, tired from 12 hours on my feet and ready to burst. Came back to a hot bath filled with lavender scented bath salt, candles all around the bathroom, a cold beer waiting for me next to it all, plus a bunch of flowers and my favorite candy bar. Almost burst into tears.

- Chilledcashew

We both have a cold. He stayed home from work today but I had to go in for the afternoon for some meetings. While I was gone, he went to the store and made supper. When I got home, what he cooked was on the stove, hot and delicious and ready to eat and I didn’t want it cause I’m sick and all I want is some broccoli cheese soup. And before I can say anything he says “Babe, I know how you are when you’re sick, so I made dinner. But I also just bought you a tub of fresh broccoli cheese soup cause I knew that’s all you’d want.” He does [stuff] like that all the time. I’m the luckiest girl alive.

- DaisyRage7

My boyfriend always explains all the stuff he learns about in class, kind of a way to review and because he really likes this stuff. He's a bio major and I'm an English major, so he always thinks he's boring me, but I absolutely love when he sits there and talks about different bugs, or how some body part works. Like this weekend we were hiking in KY (we're from CA) and he saw these weird little worm things in one of the streams. He starts talking about how they can regenerate when cut in half. I absolutely love it.

- Kaity-lynnn

My hubby knows my favorite part of Christmas is opening gifts. I just love the sound of the paper ripping and finding out what is inside. So one Christmas, he decided he was going to wrap everything. If it was in my stocking even, it was wrapped. But no, that wasn’t enough, all the kit kats and other candy weren’t just wrapped in the bag they came in. Instead, he opened the bags of mini candies and wrapped every damn one of those candies. I can’t imagine how long he spent wrapping but I still smile and chuckle when I think about him doing that for me.

- bettyb1114

Every morning my husband gets up first, which means he has the unenviable task of trying to wake me up. If I am in any way cold or chilly, he knows that I will burrow back into the duvet and attempt to hibernate. The coldest part of me is always my feet, so he started to carefully put socks on me every morning before waking me up. I can never fall asleep in socks, but now I wake up and he has carefully fitted me with a matching pair for that day. He also makes a point of picking out specific different designs each day, and sometimes will ask me if I liked his choice. 10/10 would husband again.

- jenpaints

Usually if I'm grumpy or upset, he goes into position for attack, then scoops me up and throws me over his shoulder like a freaking sack of potatoes. Then, he pretend-bodyslams me into the bed or couch and pins me down so I have to try to break free. We both do a lot of stupid, gross, cute crap, but this is my favorite by far. Cheers me up instantly.

- wounded_knife

This isn’t really a physical action but a story that means so much to me. At the beginning of our relationship we started talking about the phrase “you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette,” and it was something we decided we were going to start using so we could be more optimistic about the negative things in life. We used it here or there for a little while after that, but then months down the line I was having a really rough day. A typical bad day where everything goes wrong and you just can’t win. I went grocery shopping and had just come home to put everything up when I accidentally knocked off the carton of eggs and every. single. egg. broke. I instantly had crumpled onto the floor and started crying while picking up the shells. He cane down to see what happened and just held me while I cried. In the sweetest, most comforting voice ever he tells me, “you’ve gotta break a couple eggs to make an omelette.” I've never forgotten that day.

- kila4607v

The temperature has been dropping like crazy where we live; and my extremities are always cold. I freeze/shiver constantly even during warmer months, but obviously more so during fall/winter. My SO on the other hand is perfectly warm and just the right cuddle-temperature perennially, although at times I’m too cold to handle. When he’s in bed sometimes I like to tease him by putting my cold hands on his warm back/tummy and make him yelp.

Well, last weekend, he was fast asleep in bed by the time I crawled in carefully, trying not to wake him. He stirred anyway, and in his half-asleep state, gingerly touched my freezing feet with his. I thought it was by accident and quickly moved my feet away lest he wake up from the cold, but he was actually checking to see how cold I was, and he moved closer and wrapped his legs around mine to start warming them up. Then - still half-asleep - he reached out and grabbed my freezing hands and pulled me towards him mumbling, “Cuteness, so cold...” and promptly fell asleep with his hands locked in mine. I was left grinning in the darkness like a Cheshire Cat for a good five minutes and feeling like the luckiest, safest girl in the world. He truly is my everything!

- chocolaterush

I used to work in a sandwich shop where I had to close by myself. I would be alone for the last hour before the doors locked, and then however long it took me to finish up after close. We weren't officially together yet, weren't even really dating, we were just hanging out and getting to know each other. Anyways, I would get really freaked out being in that building by myself with the doors unlocked, it was in a bad part of town and anyone could just walk right in. I expressed this to him and he started coming and just sitting in the lobby doing homework and stuff and talking to me while I cleaned until I locked the doors, then he would sit in his car while I finished up and then drive me home. It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. It still makes me smile when I think about it.

- WrathChild94

First year of marriage hubby had to take a work trip. That first night after I got home from work (he left after I had left for work) I found he had left little noted hidden in random places around the apartment. They each had a different phrase on it. Some were funny, some were sweet. It was a super cute gesture from a guy who is not normally a romantic type. On the phone that night I told him I found the notes. He asked how many. Apparently there were two more that I couldn’t find for a couple more days. It was fun trying to find them.

- RawrDinosaurGrr

On the night he asked me to be his girlfriend, my SO swooned me over by effortlessly cooking an amazing, romantic carbonara for me.

A couple weeks later, I find random photos of the same carbonara on his phone from multiple dates leading to the day my SO asked me out. Turns out, my SO didn’t know how to cook and had been practicing profusely for weeks just so he could impress me. His roommates later confessed to me that they had been eating carbonara for weeks to help him prepare.

- kiirogurl

We went out of town for my birthday weekend, he watched Harry Potter movies with me although he’d never been a fan. We got an adult coloring book and drew on it. I started getting terrible cramps so I stopped and just started dying under the covers.

So then he remembered we borrowed a charging block for our phones from the front desk. He stated he was going to go downstairs and give them their block back. At this point I’m like “yeah sure whatever” he was gone for about twenty minutes and I start to freak out and overthink in my head I swear the worst went through my mind “he’s probably tired of my cramp whining and is downstairs grabbing a drink at the bar.... he probably found some girl and is talking to her...etc.” Therefore I called him and he said he was just in the rest room that he would be right up. So I wait a couple 10 more minutes and he showed up with a bag from a local pharmacy with heat pads (keep in mind he didn’t have his car on him, he ran all the way to the closest pharmacy to buy me heat pads for my cramps and ran all the way back)

It was just instant waterworks, because here I am thinking the worst of my SO. Meanwhile he did the most kindest gesture for me. I knew at that moment he’s the one for me and ever since I’ve been more and more grateful to have him in my life.

- kar-car

I had told him a few months ago about how I had always wanted to go on an actual, family television style picnic. You know, the woven bask, a blanket to sit on, lemonade to drink, all the works. I had begged my mum growing up to go on one, but she was a single mother raising me for most of my childhood and here I was, 24 years old, and still had never had my picnic.

About two weeks ago, he told me he was heading out for a haircut. I stayed home cuddled in a heating blanket and put on a movie while he was gone cause it was starting to rain and I figured he’d be a while.

He called me about 20min later and told me to go in the bedroom cause he [crapped] himself. Oh...okay, he is lactose intolerant and had just eaten ice cream the night before, that’s pretty embarrassing, I made sure he was alright and went to wait in the bedroom. I heard the front door open and some rustling for about five minutes, then he asks me to come out.

He’d gone to the store and gotten a wicker basket and lemonade and food for a picnic and had laid out a blanket in the living room floor for an indoor picnic. Our cat even got to sit in on and enjoy this picnic with us since it was indoors! I think he had wanted it to be outside, but the rain was keeping us in.

Sneaking the ringbox out after we finished eating was the best part, though. :)

- feralsylveon