I had some photos of old girlfriends on my computer. they have been there forever, my live in girlfriend came across the old photos and freaked and said i needed to delete all of them. should a person delete old photos?

Keep them. They're pictures of someone you may have once loved. A person with whom you had good times. Just because you are with someone new doesn;t mean you should erase all pleasant memories from your mind or computer.

You new GF is insecure. Seeing those pictures frightens her. Why not lock those pics so that no one but you can see them?

Do not delete them, and don;t destroy any old memorabilia.

This is outrageous. Your wife passed away. She is part of your life. Your new wife should respect her and want a framed picture on the mantle piece.I would not accept this, and would get her to go for counseling with you to discuss this.
The fact that she was cheated on in the past has no bearing on your dead wife.
If children are involved what I am saying goes double.

unless they are photos you would not want a child to see, there is nothing wrong with having pics of your history. her expectation that you erase your history is grosely unreasonable

My husband has a past life. I would never ask him to forget it. It's part of him, and I love him for it. If he pretended that it never happened he'd be a liar. If I made him him toss the gifts she gave him I'd feel like a jealous child. I have nothing to be jealous of. He's with me now. But his past life still exists and neither of us will deny it.

Nope... As a family historian, I keep damn near every picture I have ever received. Some are on my computer, and some are elsewhere, but I keep them all.

My wife knows me well enough to know I have long given up on them, and only keep the pictures as "memorabilia". Now, if I spent a LOT of time staring at them, or they were NAKED pictures of them, yes... I think she'd demand I remove them, but I don't, and they are not.

Tell her to butt the heck out. If you are not communicating with these women romatically or hanging pictures of them in your house, she needs to grow up. Tell her to get her own computer and get a password she can't intrude upon. I can't stand over controlling freakazoids.

I once deleted old pictures of a guy i was with because my bf at the time didnt want them. (that bf wasnt even a real bf)
then that guy died in an accident and i now have no photos of me and him together. all because i deleted them.

I am not saying that you have every rigth to keep all the photos of exes, if they are innocent photos that have memories then it shouldnt matter. i regret every day that i deleted those photos.

I didn't freak out on my fiance when I found pictures of his old girlfriend. I simply talked to him. I asked him this... "what is the point of keeping pictures of your x?" If you love your current live in girlfriend why do you need those photo's. I understand those are your memories... and I'm not saying that you should have to delete them... but I do understand where your live in girlfriend is coming from. The only thing I strongly disagree with her on is the fact that she freaked out on you. There is never any reason to freak out over the past.

I don't think people really ever think about that kind of stuff. They are your photos so no, you shouldn't HAVE to delete them. +3

Oh absolutely, delete your past, your memories, whatever it takes to make the current missus feel special. Girlfriends like this embarrass me. Soooo needy, insecure and plain old silly.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dont do it man. for goodness sake no.

Your present "live-in" girlfriend sounds. . . .'ahem. . . .insecure!

If you are in a stable relationship your girl friend should not be bothered about the photos unless they are of your ex naked. Hopefully you can trust each other if your living together.

no, if you do that you may as well castrate yourself too.

The only time you should delete/ toss photos is if they aren't PG. If they are just pictures (not erotic or anything), then she needs to suck it up. You had a life before her, she had one before you.

Take a USB drive and store them on it

Take the USB drive and put it in a safe place.

Delete the pictures from your drive.

Show her to make her happy.

This way, you can keep the pictures so if she moves on, than you still have them.

+ 5

HELL NO!!!! What would do if you two got into a heated argument that led to you two breaking up? You would be kickin' yourself in the ass for getting rid of those flix. I say don't do it, those are memories you can't replace.

Burn them onto a CD and delete them off your computer. Your past is your past and you are allowed to have momentos of it, but I can see her point too.

I'm in the same position with my b/f (the photo's are mine with my old b/f)

I want to delete the photo's because I am no longer involved with my ex and I want to show commitment to my current b/f.
But then again, I don't want to delete them;- there are a part of my life that I enjoyed, it's in the past - I would keep photographs (old fashioned type) of my past, why are these photo's any different because the photo's are stored on my pc?

I suppose if I really wanted to keep them I would print them out and put them with my 'old fashioned' photos. Or I could file them away with other photo's around that time and put the date as the folder name.

I just don't want to delete a part of my life just because my s/o feels uncomfortable about it.

Those pictures are your memories...would you ask her to do the same? I had an ex that went through my photos and tore them all up without my knowing. When I found this out I knew this man saw me as a possession and did not respect me as an individual.

I wouldn't ask them to unless they were naked pics.

not until you are ready to let go of them...and if that is never, so be it...unless they are in the style of porno-that's different.

If there just innocent pics, nothing permiscuous in them then i dont see why u should have to. if they are just memories, why get rid of your memories?? Its part of your life and your past. Im married and I still have photos of a hiking trip i went on wih my ex bf. Although i kept the pictures more for the scenery than anything!! lol..

For her to do that shows her to be overly emotional, demanding and a controlling woman. Watch out and don't delete them, she's on her way to being in that group.

I hate when people do that to me, that's the kiss of death for them. I would never ever demand or try to control anybody. I would know that everybody has old pictures on their PC unless it has crashed. And I would be secure enough with my relationship to not have it bother me at all.

She sounds young and immature but typical, been there done that and they are all long gone for those reasons.

I don't see why she should feel threatened over photo's of an ex and I don't see why you should have to delete them. I have photo's of my ex and my s/o is fine with it, if she was feeling insecure about them then I would try and discuss it with her to try and find out exactly what's going on with her.

I freaked when I found some pictures in my husband's belongings. I really don't know why. The past is well in the past. He didn't want to throw them out, but he did. Now I feel badly that I acted so stupidly. Take this into consideration too - what type of pictures were they and how would you feel if you found pictures like those on her computer?

Not if you don't want to.

listen you have too get rid of them at some point, what are you gonna do show them to your children and say oh yes these were the women i was with before your mum!

I never keep old photos, etc. Regular drunken bonfires to erase memories is a tradition with me. +5

If you love her and it bothers her, the pictures have to go.

if you care about the gal you love now, delete them.............

Why would you have to get rid of them if they were not getting in the way of your current relationship. Sounds like someone isnot too sure about the relationship.

I had the same problem with my wife. I had photos of my late wife in a box on the shelf. In all fairness, my wife had been cheated-on by her ex-husbands, so she is jealous. But, pics of my late wife I thought would OK to keep. I ended up putting them, outside, in a box, in the shed. Now, girlfriends are not as permanent as a wife, so I can see where she might feel threatened. Burn them onto a CD and then delete them from your computer.

I would have no issues with my s/o having pictures of past partners. What I would ask though is that any pictures that weren't appropriate (nude, etc.) would be discarded.

The photos may be good memories for you, but they are a direct threat to your girlfriend.

Suppose she had two pages of her old boyfriends stored away.

How would you feel?

If you really must save the photos, burn them and prints made and hide them somewhere.

Silence is golden. she will love you more for doing this. it shows you have respect for her.......only.

It depends on what kind of photos they are of them.. if you're in them, print them, put them in a memory box, and put the box away.

I don't think it's okay to have them on your computer, though.

Welcome to the "no-win" situation. Hehehehehe!

Just put them on a disk and toss it in a drawer.
She cant erase your memories and its unfair for her to ask,
But its also unfair of you to keep them where she has to see them all the time.

Spangbr, if the old girlfriends are naked in the pictures get rid of them, pronto. I'm assuming by the tone of your question you probably forgot you even had them. How much does your current girlfriend mean to you? What do you need the old photos for? A trip down memory lane? Do you think your going to get back with any of them? If not, there's really no point in keeping them. Is there? And you could make one girlfriend very happy knowing that she means the world to you. That would be the message that you would be giving her in deleting them. Would there be anything wrong with that? The worse thing you could possibly do is pretend that they are gone and they're not. You see...as long as you keep the pictures your girlfriends going to think you care more about keeping the pictures than you care about her feelings.

She is insecure and imature! tell her to get rid of her memories good and bad. also these people effected who you are today. so no!

Why don't you just move the files into an obscure folder (A system or program folder should do) where she wont look? remember to rename them though so a search wont find any results.
Or change them to "hidden" files. Right click-properties-attributes. Check the "hidden" box.
Then you can only see them if you check "view hidden files". Problem is I am using vista and I don't know how to do that yet...if you have a different OS then I can't help you.

Those photos are YOUR property so to speak. You have them on your computer and you have the say so over them. If you wish to delete them then do so; if not keep them.
-
If your girlfriend is that jealous she needs to learn how to not be so. As long as she feels she is not threatened or you are comparing her with them she has no grounds to be upset.
-
I have hundreds of photos of my ex wives on here and my last wife now ex was never threatened by any of them.

I have old flame pictures in a separate album. I think it depends on whether the relationship with each person still has meaning and if there is secrecy or deceit around any of them. Some of mine I wonder what I ever saw in them. No man has ever had anything negative to say about them. If one did, I would inquire as to his security level with me. Hopefully, each man has felt very secure (and later knows they may join the others). My daughter is the most interested to see who her Mom dated. My son could care less.

It's the secrecy that would bother me, that I wasn't told they were there. Back to communication and trust in the relationship.

umm print and delete. if she loves you, she will respect your life, as much as if you found photos..in time, she will pack them away for you...

If they are just pictures...no.
If they are naked pictures...yes.

If you guys are still friends, whats the biggy.
If you guys had a horrible split, why not...get rid of the bad memories.

You have a right to your privacy, as long as you don't keep it omnipresent. If you have a sneaking and jealous partner, you will possibly have to take a choice: them or your memories. Sad but true.

No - ask her what's wrong with hanging on to memories. She has no right to be jealous over a past that cannot be altered. We must remember though, that the part of the brain that gets jealous can't understand 4-dimensional information, only 3-dimensional, so it doesn't see past or future, just one's hubby with another woman. If she freaked, she's not thinking coherently, she's feeling instinctively.

Just talk to her about the past, and have her talk about her past. If that doesn't work then good luck with your hyperpossessive irrational girlfriend.

no i don't think you should,,,,may be put them some where private,,,but they are part of your past,,,,not that it matters but has she thrown away all of her old photos ,,,,and would you want her to ,,,,,

I personally like memories.
And taking pictures is one of the best ways to capture them.
So I would say no.
Though you should probably do like Travis said and save them to separate discs and store them.

You can buy some software that encrypts and hides photos so you can only see them with a password.
Then you could have hidden folders named: girlfriend1, girlfriend2, girlfriend3, etc.