You can't expect Mama
to know 
everything. Or that what your Moms told you was what your particular relationship
needs.
Relationships are hard, hard work and commitment is not enough to get by with in the 21st Century. You need skills!
Think about couples therapy, relationship workshops, marriage tuneups. Get that sputtering junk buggy that your love has turned into and get to work on it. Take it for a ride on the love connection highway. You deserve to be loved.
Couples counseling can reveal your "compatibility quotient" and help you make an informed decision about whether the relationship can work. Specific paper & pencil tests can reveal where your relationship is stumbling and why. A skilled therapist can help you find solutions based on that.
Understanding comes from recognizing both the strengths and weaknesses of not just your partner, but yourself. Understanding also comes from having a different frame of reference within which you learn to hear your partner's needs.
A clear agreement: With the information gained in communication exercises you can be helped to negotiate a fair trade with your partner. One that has minimal risks for both of you.
The new relationship standards take into account the marginalization of brothers, barriers to education and employment discrimination. Every brother can't deliver a Benz, Gucci and Hilni..oops, Hilfiger. By the way, where in the Mother country do those names come from? The new relationship standards aren't based on delivering the products of the privileged party. The new relationship standards are based on honest, time-tested, reality-based sharing of tasks, feelings, goals and needs. They revolve around family, commitment, patience, acceptance and respect.
Women think on the outside. Men think on the inside. Women don't have to tell everything they're thinking. Men don't have to hold everything in. This kind of thinking makes a difference.
The culture no longer supports long-term relationships. And the predominant messages about how relationships are supposed to work - well, they are just false! Most couples really will need sponsorship by older couples or relationship training/therapy to make it nowadays.
Check out our library for books on improving relationships.
Couples counseling is not "detention for messed up dudes". It won't be putting your business in the street.
On the contrary. It is mediation for "business" partners. 
The
"business" of your relationship is defined. The terms of the contract are
negotiated to insure fairness. You identify ways to interpret what she's been tryin' to
tell you all along. And you learn the magic words that keep your lady happy and you in
peace.