Respect is the minimum, not the bonus. Don’t treat basic decency like a green flag.

Being treated decently is the floor of a relationship, not an achievement worth pointing at. After somebody has been careless with you for a while, ordinary politeness starts to feel like generosity, and that quiet recalibration is how low standards get installed. Someone not insulting you is not a quality. It is the entry requirement before anything else even counts.

When you catch yourself listing basic decency as a reason to stay, notice what that is being compared against. Ask what else is actually there. A floor being met is not the same as the thing being good.