Would exaggerating and small lies early on be a deal breaker?

[Pasteltip]

I am late 30s and have been seeing a man of similar age from the start of the year.
I have realised from a month or so ago that he exaggerates a lot, or sometimes just tells out and out lies. It seems in an attempt to impress me or maybe to seem more experienced that he is. Some lies are around previous relationships whereas others are around work/life achievements. Not really massive lies, small enough that I didn’t initially question them but now I’ve seen a pattern there. To be honest I haven’t even questioned the recent ones, I’m just observing and taking this all in.

has anyone ever dealt with this before?

A liar by another name? Bin him...

You cannot trust him. Why continue? I say this so often on mumsnet but liars lie. That is whats they do. He wont change.

Immediate no.

There’s trying to impress, and there’s lies. I think,the fact that you’re recognising he’s lieing it is a red flag. It sounds like he’s a compulsive lier.

No thanks!

Chuck this one back.

Straight no. Bin.

What is he lying about, and how do you know he’s lying?

(If he lies to impress you at the start he’ll lie to you later on for more nefarious reasons btw)

We have a friend like this who is a habitual liar. He lies about anything and everything, even the smallest most insignificant stuff. DD also knows another person like this, and we literally cannot trust a single thing they say. Some of it could be true, but they've lied so much you can't believe a word of it.

This would be a dealbreaker for me.

Binzy Winzy

100% a deal breaker. I dated someone like this for around a year, I didn't realise at first but slowly the little lies he'd told early on begun to come back up but were a different story.

It got more annoying as time went on, he would tell me "I've ordered X or booked Y" and then weeks later I'd ask about it and he would make up another lie about why that thing hadn't happened.

He was also incredibly needy (hence the lying to impress I guess) and used to emotionally blackmail me, cause huge arguments through his insecurities and overall was a terrible relationship but love bombed me to start with and I was blinded by it

Yeah run. The lies will get bigger. They might seem small and silly now but a liar is a liar. I had this. After about a year or so I realised he wasn’t just trying to impress me, or charmingly bumbling and ‘confused’ or ‘miscommunicating’, he was just actually deceptive and couldn’t keep his stories straight. I believe the small lies or ‘it was just to impress you/didn’t want hurt you/just a joke’ type of person starts small as a way of testing what you will believe. Surely you want to be with someone who is authentic and open from the get go?

@Hopefulmama21 sounds like we were with the same guy! Mine love bombed too which I didn’t see or know about at the time. I made the mistake of overlooking some things as he presented as so polite and charming, but gradually it all came out… Needy, insecure, quick to play the victim but still somehow nothing was ever his fault, I’d not understood or misheard or he just didn’t remember… I’d leave conversations feeling drained by the word salad and feeling like ‘hmm he said the right things but why do I still feel so unheard and uncertain?’ Look up covert narcissism and avoidant!