So I have been with my partner for close to a year. I love him dearly and I truthfully see a future with him. There was an incident at work late last week where my colleague was upset as she found out her partner had been calling one of his female friends "babe", "hun" etc.

It was brought up in conversation because I was on my lunch break and at the time my boyfriend messaged me and asked what I was up to and that is when I told him I'd just been consoling my colleague as she was pretty upset. He went on to tell me that he does that with one of his female friends. He then went on to say they used those kinds of names for each other.

Background: they met on a night out and ended up going home together, sleeping together, dated for a period of time and then decided to be friends. This was roughly 5 years ago. I personally have no issue with him remaining friends with people he has dated as that was then and this is now. However, I do take issue with the use of pet names when both are in relationships with different people. I 100% trust my boyfriend so my views aren't coming from a place of insecurity. I simply find it to be disrespectful.

However, I raised this with him and he started to become defensive and saying I was trying to "change him". It ended up escalating into a large fight (which I didn't think it really needed to) because he felt I was trying to change him and control him. He then went on to say "I'm sorry you're upset but I won't be changing". I am genuinely confused about how me expressing that I feel disrespected by my boyfriend calling another woman "babe" and "hun" is me trying to change him.

I have never and will never dictate who he is friends with so I am not asking for him to cut a friendship off. I simply don't see the need for the pet names considering they are both in relationships. My partner flat out said he cannot see how it would be disrespectful and does not see how I could view it that way. This was almost a week ago but I do not feel completely over it. I suppose it isn't something I have gotten over entirely because I don't feel like my feelings have been acknowledged. I plan to speak to him about it tonight as I am not over it and do not want it to fester and grow into a massive issue.

Thanks so much xx"