She followed him around like a puppy dog.
He stared at her with adoration.

There is no issue unless its not mutual, generally. Or if one needs more space. Or someone gets stalkerish. Those are different issues than ‘clingy’ though.

If he was any clingier to his mother, he would be back up inside her womb.

Nope, I can’t give clinging a positive spin. It’s creepy in adults. Cute in children to a certain age.

Another sense of clingy is overdependent..

https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/9-ways-less-clingy-your-relationship.html

I’m not really sure. I have a guy I met online who texts constantly, and while it is nice knowing he’s thinking about me, I wake up to 28 texts and I receive over 70 while I’m at work. It gets time consuming to read all those. And they ask a lot of questions so it takes a while to answer.

I’d say putting a positive spin on it would be saying what I said I guess “It’s nice knowing he’s thinking of me”

I can do it in two ways:

First positive spin on clingy: Inflate a balloon, rub a balloon against your hair, and it will cling to any positively-charged surface. Tadah!

Second positive form of clingy

I agree with others above, when it’s about adult human interactions, clingy isn’t generally a positive.

Childish Gambino has us covered

Um, at least I know where you are at all times.

Positive spin??? Can’t think of a damn one!!!

Description…They love you & are obsessed with you & how you spend your day. Gets jealous IF you even look at another person. Just cannot understand the words “I’m not interested”.
On the other side…You barely even like them & have NO interest in a relationship. You say that you’re not interested in them but they FAIL to understand or REFUSE to believe that you mean it.
They follow you around to make sure that you’re being faithful to them even though you’ve said a million different ways that you’re not interested.
The harder you try to run them off, the harder they push to be with you!!!

@SergeantQueen
I had a friend as well as an ex who did this..but the reason isn’t entirely about him missing you.( some men not all).

I discovered that in some or most cases a “player” will do that to find out where you are or are not ( location

In fact I watched this unfold several times over the years with a ), just “in case” you might accidentally find him in some restaurant,park or whatever location that he is in, with another women.

I worked with a family of youths who used the phone at work to set up meetings with other women, but not after first making sure that they don’t inadvertently bump into there significant other.
( after watching those scenarios happen over and over ,I soon realized that these well developed, musclebound men valued there commodity appeal and used it .

I soon began to wonder about ALL men doing this as a dumb game of chance and thus not to be trusted.

By the way we live in a small Town and this played out for years and they all married except now the whole Town distrusts them…in the last couple of years all but one brother stays in Town the others moved to another Province.

My hope is that they learned a life experience , the hard way.

There is a difference from loving one and possessing one and jealousy.

It depends of there life experiences for example:

1. Experienced a traumatic death of a cherished relative,ex girlfriend so that any type of abandonment feeling comes on they feel the same experience all over again.

2. Someone in there past relationships was untrustworthy and thus they check.

3. Perhaps they think of you so much that they just want to say“How was your day ” etc

( you will see that little tidbit online on how to keep a women loving you as advise for men)?

4. They are feeling alone and “need” to have someone to be there for them. ( abandonment experience)

5. They just had an upsetting experience and needed you.( women do this too).

6. Some people have never had real love in there life so this is a new thing for them , to be valued and acknowledged etc

7.Maybe his ex cheated on him and now he is looking for it in others?

8. I would never get angry or upset with someone , but if too much then set boundaries or time limits or even call them certain times of the agreed times so that they feel a part of your life.

I had a ex boyfriend that did that and I loved that he was thinking about me that much to let me know that he cared.

There is a HUGE difference in someone trying to simply show that they care & are thinking of you & someone who is obsessed with you. There’s a HUGE difference between someone who was cheated on before & waiting on being cheated on again & someone who is obsessed with where you’re going & who you’re going to be with. You can’t set boundaries with a clingy person as they accept NO boundaries. The ONLY boundary that sometimes works is to completely cut them out of your life!!!

@LadyMarissa

That is why it is upmost importance to set boundaries in the beginning before the relationship continues and keep to those set with consequences.
No body likes being stalked.

Sorry, no. A clingy person hanging on you is worse than having a bear trap stuck on your leg.

I’ll take the clingy person over a bear trap on my leg. I enjoy fully-functioning limbs.

Does that count as a positive spin?

@kritiper
I suppose that there are different views of what clingy is?
One may think just phoning to say hi may be clingy while others are more tolerant?
It depends on how comfortable or uncomfortable one feels about it?

I just had a thought..I am more tolerant since I am a twin and we grew up going everywhere

together, sharing equal interests and so on, in that dark time we were isolated from a gap in our age differences .
( 3 years older,5 years older and 8 years older , so that makes a big difference).

In short we had a companionship that lasted until we married and had separate lives.

I imagine a person all alone would feel isolated unless they had interests and numerous

friends to take the place of siblings?

@Inspired_2write He’s older than me and in a different state so I doubt he’s going to show up near me, but yeah I’ve seen that play out too. It’s wild

There’s very little difference between a stalker and a clingy person

I would say that the word “clingy” is somewhat demeaning as to it’s context. It might be quite nice to have someone around who is crazy about you…

@kritiper
Yes, minus the crazy.

Clingy simile: She was clingy, like a hair in a biscuit.

There really is no way to spin clingy in a good way. I think the problem is that thin line it sits on. Being devoted to someone is good. When you are devoted to excess, it is clingy.

Sort of like the difference between kinky and perverted. Kinky is when you use a feather during sex, perverted is when you use the whole chicken.

^^ Thanks for a much needed laugh!!!

@kritiper There is NO such thing as demeaning a clingy person enough. I’d love to have someone crazy about me, but NOT if I have to take the clingy in order to have it!!!