You thought things were going so well. The flirty texts, the great dates, the future vacation plans you giddily discussed over drinks. But lately, something feels...off. Their communication has gotten flakier, your hangouts feel deprioritized, and you can't shake that sinking suspicion you've been shoved onto the backburner - temporarily shiny and appealing enough to keep around, but not the main course.

If these mixed signals and hot-and-cold patterns sound all too familiar, you might just be the latest victim of "cookie jarring" - the insidious dating trend taking emotional casualty across apps and DMs near you. 

What is Cookie Jarring?

Cookie jarring is that deeply insulting yet increasingly common practice of treating the person you're dating like the literal cookie at the bottom of the jar. You know, the one someone might fish out for a quick bite and a nostalgic sugar rush...until they get bored and put you right back in, practically untouched.

It's when a romantic prospect keeps you crumbling sweetly on the shelf, intermittently giving you just enough attention to keep you semi-interested as their "option" - all while their real pursuit is someone else they're actively investing all their ingredients and energy into.

Why It's Important to Recognize

Being cookie jarred essentially makes you a placeholder, a pinch-hitting back-burner prospect forever rotating in the dreaded circle of on-again, off-again limbo. It prevents you from being able to fully move on and find someone who can make you their main priority.

Worse, it's a form of breadcrumbing - an emotionally manipulative tactic to keep you occupied and hanging on their every alternating hot-and-cold whim. Like the cookies going stale in that stupid jar, meanwhile, your self-esteem starts to get similarly dehydrated and compromised the longer you tolerate the BS.

By learning to sniff out the telltale signs of a cookie jarrer, you can stop getting spun in fruitless circles and advance your romantic life in a healthier, more fulfilling direction. One where you're finally the main damn event, not an emergency snack pack to idly nibble on between their other cravings.

Signs You're Being Cookie Jarred

Here are the 7 telltale signs you're being cookie jarred:

1. Inconsistent Communication

One minute, they're eagerly responding to your texts and making witty banter. The next, you're inexplicably being left on read for days at a time. These hot and cold communication patterns should be a major red flag.

When someone is truly invested, their attentiveness will be consistent - not just popping in and out of your life in sporadic waves of hyped-up texting only to flake out again shortly after. Steady is the goal, not an endless rollercoaster.

2. Limited Emotional Investment

Sure, they showered you with interest upfront and made future plans that seemed encouraging. But take a closer look - do their efforts actually show true vulnerability or emotional risk on their part? Or do they pump the brakes anytime real intimacy is required?

Cookie jarrers tend to love the considering and fantasy of a relationship more than the actuality. So their investments will feel surface-level and short-lived, fleeing the second you move to establish any real lasting depth.

3. Unclear Relationship Status

Despite all their romantic overtures and fangirling/fanboying over you in the beginning, they stammerbodge any discussion about firmly defining the relationship and getting explicit about commitment levels.

Cookie jarrers thrive in that ambiguity since it permits them to continue padding their stashes of optionality on the low. Don't get it twisted - this vagueness is very much intentional, not mere circumstance.

4. Flaky Plans

Speaking of intentional, how many times have they canceled plans at the last minute, with feeble excuses abound and no effort to actually make it up to you with a rain check soon after? Enough that you've lost count at this point?

Cookie jarrers suck at keeping plans because you were never the true priority in their scheduling to begin with. Your hangout was more of a tossed crumb than a binding obligation they felt compelled to keep.

5. Always a Backup Option

Ever notice this person only seems to initiate or enthusiastically reciprocate your hangouts when their other options appear to have fallen through for the evening? Like you're always their safely Reliable Pam to swoop in and make plans...until someone else they'd rather chase around finally hits them up last minute first?

If your quality time together constantly feels contingent on your own date acquiring no better suitors that night, that's a huge indicator they've got you tucked into the old cookie jar while constantly fishing around for fresh catches.

6. Avoidance of Commitment 

Any A+ communication, consistent making of concrete plans, or buttering you up with lavish attention is swiftly withdrawn or scaled way back once you try to progress things to a more committed level.

Cookie jarrers are pokey commitment-phobes at heart. Their tactics of momentary romantic grandeur are just manipulation plays to keep you consuming more crumbs in hopes of eventually being taken off the shelf. But they have zero intention of ever officially clearing that space in their cabinets.

7. Lack of Transparency

Above all, that telltale shade of guarded evasiveness and lack of any real vulnerability or transparency around their dating behaviors, schedule, or circles will start glaring the longer you let this toxic scenario extend. 

They stay cagey about their personal life because the full truth is they've been juggling multiple prospects and don't want you catching on to when and how they stash you away to cookie jar freebase off their fresh flings. Once you've identified that pattern, it's time to knock the whole jar off the countertop.

Reasons Behind Cookie Jarring

Here are some potential reasons behind why someone might engage in cookie jarring behavior:

Fear of Commitment & Keeping Options Open

For many cookie jarrers, their behavior stems from a deep-rooted fear of fully committing to any one person. Even if they genuinely enjoy your company and aren't intentionally aiming to hurt you, the idea of cutting off other romantic options fills them with anxiety.

By keeping you tucked away in their personal cookie jar, they don't have to deal with the vulnerability and expectations of being someone's one-and-only priority. You become a crutch allowing them to avoid confronting their commitment issues head-on. An ego-stroking, easily-accessible back-burner option lets them keep sampling other romantic prospects freely.

The validation of having multiple people infatuated and messaging also likely feeds their sense of self-worth on some level, making discarding any singular admirer difficult from that ego perspective.

Insecurity & Maintaining Control

In other cases, cookie jarring serves as a dysfunction control mechanism rooted in toxic insecurity. By subtly pulling away and bread-crumbing you just often enough to keep you on the hook, they ensure you never feel fully secure in their interest or availability.

This manufactures an imbalanced power dynamic that makes you crave their ephemeral attention and validation like an addict. It allows the cookie jarrer to always remain the pursued rather than the pursuer, feeding their obsessive need for control more than genuine romantic fulfillment.

The Dating Pool Paradox

Some cookie jarrers believe that the paradox of choice has rendered dating an impossibly high-stakes game. They see the endless buffet of options in the modern dating pool as justification to keep culling back-up samplers on ice at all times.

No matter how into you they might seem, that little voice in their head whispers there could always be a more "perfect" partner just one extra swipe away. So you get intermittently jarred and de-prioritized as they recklessly spin themselves from one enticing possibility to the next in perpetuity.

At the core of all these motivations is an inability to be present, vulnerable, and intentional with any single person or prospect. Cookie jarring allows them to keep auditioning people without ever having to actually pick a leading role and commit fully to the partnership journey.

How to Protect Yourself from Cookie Jarring

Here are some tips on how to protect yourself from being cookie-jarred:

1. Prioritize Self-Worth & Clear Communication

The best defense is prioritizing your self-worth and having clear upfront communication about exclusivity. Don't be afraid to have the "defining the relationship" talk sooner rather than later to establish if you're both seeking something committed and monogamous.

Make it crystal clear that you expect to be someone's top priority, not an option or placeholder. Setting boundaries about what communication patterns, effort levels, and treatment you'll accept in a relationship can filter out potential cookie jarrers before things go too far.

2. Trust Your Gut & Don't Ignore Red Flags

When your intuition tells you something seems off or inconsistent with their words and actions, listen to it! So many of us ignore those gut feelings because we want to fixate on someone's superficial gestures rather than uncomfortable truths.

But overlooking glaring red flags like flaky communication, limited follow-through, and reluctance to commit is a surefire way to end up cookie jarred indefinitely. Have the self-respect to walk away from situationships filled with mixed signals before you're strung along.

3. Don't Settle for Second Best

You are a whole snack, not a crusty, ration-portioned crumble someone can casually graze on between other romantic affairs! Recognize that you deserve to be someone's genuine first choice - not their back-up plan tucked away for perfunctory validation pings.

If the person you're dating treats you like an option worth dropping at any hint of a newer, shinier prospect, they have shown you their true colors. Never settle for being someone's second-best snack when an unstoppable main course is still out there looking for you.

4. Move Forward & Focus on Genuine Connections

At the end of the day, cookie jarring exemplifies a massively dysfunctional relationship dynamic where openness, vulnerability, and real emotional intimacy are utterly impossible to cultivate. The only way to end up genuinely fulfilled is to free yourself from these games entirely.

Invest your energy into people who match your communication efforts, follow through on making firm plans, get explicit about defining the relationship, and don't deprioritize you the second some other person pings their radar. With time and focus, you can absolutely find fulfillment with someone who sees you as their singularly-focused forever treat.

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Being cookie jarred can profoundly corrode your self-esteem and distort your perception of what a healthy, reciprocal relationship should feel like. But YOU get to take control and enforce the boundaries that protect your heart from these manipulative tactics.

Don't resign yourself to being someone's backup snack! You deserve to feel like the whole damn meal - consumed with enthusiasm, indulged with undivided loyalty, and never just picked at absentmindedly when it's convenient. Know your worth, spot the signs, and close that cookie jar for good. Only genuine emotional fulfillment lies ahead.