At my job I talked with one of the execs about this. Promises not being kept. Basicly, the deal was "If there is no substantiality, it's not worth placing weight on."
Promises or expectations that have no actions in front of you or anything, aren't worth relying on. We used it in our professional context to decide whether to rely on outside help expected to help or just do it ourselves and say "You showed nothing in reality so we didn't depend on you."
In personal relationships, people screw up. They do, that's being human. But asking for help and doing nothing is... Again, no substationality. If a partner does something like cheats and asks for forgiveness and says they'll go to a therapist, there is nothing to depend on. They had to have already gone to a therapist after the fact to earn back even a grain of trust.
:3 Lessons learned, oh well.
