Letting your boyfriend know that he is a bit too clingy is a first step, and following this up with reasonable suggestions on how to counter this is the next step.

Clingy guys are not as self-aware of their clinginess as they should be.

He misinterprets his clingy behavior as a sign that he is a good boyfriend that is being attentive to you.

By letting him know that he is being clingy, you bring it to his attention and enlighten him.

By making suggestions as far as activities to do with his time that doesn’t involve you, you are putting a positive spin on your message.

This lets him see that you do want him to maintain his identity.

What are his hobbies?

These are hobbies that he has ignored since since he began dating you.

This is your moment to bring these hobbies up to him, suggesting that starting those hobbies up again would be a great move.

Think back to a moment where he has spoken to you about a project that he was thinking about doing.

Something he wants to build or fix.

In telling him that it is something you would love to see him accomplish, he knows that you want to see him succeed in getting it done.

This motivates him to go ahead and do it.

How have you facilitated your boyfriend’s clingy behavior?

Sometimes, you are part of the problem.

You wanted a whole lot of his attention in the early stages of courtship.

These were moments where he wanted to hang out with his friends, but you prevented him from doing it by making him feel guilty about it.

He wanted to go do a hobby, and you complained that he wasn’t giving you attention.

Consequently, he stopped doing the hobby to make you happy.

You discouraged him from hanging out at his favorite local spots with his friends on weekends, but cajoled him into hanging out at your local spots without his friends.

You encouraged him to end a number of his friendships, being that you didn’t like those friends, or believed them to be a threat to your relationship with him.

Keeping all of this in mind, have you facilitated his clinginess?

Doing an honest analysis of your past behavior with this guy, gives you a better perspective on whether there is any culpability for his clinginess on your part.

If you realize that there is culpability, make adjustments to your behavior.

By making adjustments to your behavior, he has a greater motivation to become independent.

If he does become independent, you have to respect that and never thwart it by reverting back to wanting him all to yourself.

Without this discipline in your behavior, you are liable to revert back to how you behaved in the past.

Be consistent in your behavior and in your support of him getting back into his hobbies.

A healthy balance of independence and time spent together in your relationship is what you should aim for.