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It's not you, it's me.
Chances are you've either said it or been on the receiving end of this lame breakup line. It ranks right up there with "I need to find myself," in terms of clarity and honesty.
But prepare yourself: We've officially hit breakup season, according to Yahoo! Personals.
The dating service surveyed more than 2,500 of its users and found that people are more than twice as likely to think about breaking up now than at any other time of the year.
The prime period seems to be between Christmas and Valentine's Day -- when you have hung in long enough to have a date to your company's holiday party and someone to kiss on New Year's Eve, but you're not willing to spend another penny on the most romantic day of the year.
Although breaking up is regularly a topic of books, talk shows and movies, there seems to be no right way to end a relationship. Yet, Laurie Helgoe thinks people are less intimidated these days by breaking up. Maybe it's because they've read her book, "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Breaking Up," cover to cover.
"I see people getting tougher and more willing to pass on a relationship," says Helgoe, a West Virginia author, consultant and psychologist.
She attributes some of this to online dating, in which users have been given more practice on the art of breaking up.
The brokenhearted certainly know what doesn't work -- the e-mails, voice mails, yelling matches and maybe the worst method: when your supposed loved one just disappears.
The Yahoo survey found that:
•Monday is the best day to call it quits, with Sunday coming in second.
•Sending a breakup e-mail to someone's work account is the worst way to cut loose.
•The top two reasons for breaking up are no shared view for the future and feeling unfulfilled.
Wendy Bolton Floyd and Judy Bolton, authors of the upcoming book "When Did You Know... He Was Not the One?," say there are a couple of things you can do to stave off a breakup:
•Don't string along someone if you're not interested.
•And don't behave so badly that the other person breaks up with you first.
But if it's inevitable, the dumpees should be left so that they still have their dignity, say the sisters, who are official spokeswomen for Yahoo! Personals' Breakup Season.
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