A Viral TikTok About This Dating Habit Has Relationship Experts Genuinely Worried For Women

While there’s nothing wrong with a woman staying at home should she choose (and have the resources) to do so, trends like the tradwife or princess treatment ones can quickly turn into something darker — just like the #girlboss trend did before them.

“Right off the bat, I can see how the idea of ‘princess treatment’ could appeal to women who want their male partners to be more romantic and take more initiative in making them feel special — in other words, traditional courtship,” Genesis Games, LMHC, a therapist, relationship expert, and founder of Healing Connections said. “There’s a difference, though, between clearly expressing reasonable expectations — like asking your partner to make dinner reservations, bring you flowers once a week or open doors for you — and completely making yourself small and helpless in your partner’s presence.”

For Games, Palmer is leaning far too heavily in the latter direction for comfort.

Blaine Anderson, a matchmaker, dating coach and founder of Dating by Blaine, said she’s not personally interested in replicating the kind of relationship Palmer has with her husband, but she doesn’t think that in itself is a cause for concern.
It’s up to each of us to decide what dynamics feel good to us in a relationship, and if that includes a fairly extreme version of “princess treatment,” Anderson suggests, that’s fine, as long as it’s mutually agreed upon.

“For all I know, the princess dynamic [Palmer] describes observing with her husband may actually work — and even feel healthy — for their relationship,” Anderson said. “They’re both adults, the dynamic sounds consensual, and she implies they both enjoy it. Her version of princess treatment sounds weird to me, but that doesn’t necessarily make it unhealthy for her or her husband.”