We have all been there. We have all had to do it. Occasionally, a relationship just falls apart in a bad way. When that happens, you just wish you could walk away and leave it at that. Yet, you feel compelled to let the other person know that it is over instead of making them wait around in torturous silence until they figure it out months down the road without contact from you. The problem comes along though when you feel compelled to let the other person know of the break up but not compelled enough to use one of the acceptable, tried and true methods such as a quiet one on one talk or even a long telephone conversation. What are the worst ways to break up with someone?

E-mail.

Electronic mail or 'e-mail' is one of the greatest tools given to us by the Internet. Sending letters, pictures, and other documents whizzing through cyberspace to be received by someone half the world away in a matter of minutes is an amazing way to keep in touch with worldwide acquaintances and support the spread and transfer of information. Some people want to abuse this awesome power though by using its rapidness and its anonymity to sever ties with a lover as painlessly as possible. However, it ends up being just the opposite of painful for the person receiving the e-mail.

Example? Apparently the professional hockey player Jarret Stoll who plays for the L.A. Kings decided the best way to cancel his wedding to model/actress Rachel Hunter was with a mass e-mail. Less than two months before the wedding he e-mailed her and every person on their guest list to call the wedding off.

Facebook

The changing of relationship status on social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace is an important step in one's relationship life. Changing one's relationship status to 'in a relationship' is a large step as it allows every one of your friends to know you are currently taken. This is particularly key on Facebook as you generally have to send an invitation to the person with whom you are dating for approval so that their name is posted beside yours. The changing of your status back to single though is another big step after a break up. A way that people take the changing of one's relationship status back to single to a whole new level is doing it BEFORE he or she has spoken to their significant other about breaking up, thereby making Facebook the bearer of bad news.

A Public Place

While it may seem nice to take the other person out for a final nice dinner or an expensive drink, breaking up with someone in public can be seen as a very bad move. It is easy to think that the public venue will make the break-ee calmer and reserved - meaning they will not shout at you and quietly finish their dinner or drink before letting you know that they 'understand' then give you a gentle hug and goodbye. WRONG! More often than not the person, no matter how sweet and reserved they are normally, will most certainly cause a scene and all the people sitting next to your table will know of your pathetic breakup attempt and consider you to be a jerk. Having a very long, awkward wait for the check might well be the least of your problems if you choose this breakup method.

Post-It Note

The idea of putting your feelings about breaking up with someone in writing has its merits. You are able to put down your true feelings and explain everything in detail without distractions of someone butting in or forgetting things. However, breaking up with someone through a piece of paper really is not that fair to them. You don't allow them their opportunity to express their own feelings and anger at the end of the relationship. They are as justified in their own feelings as you are. Since you cared enough about their feelings to start dating them, you might as well give them a few moments to rant and wail at you when you break up with them. There is an infamous Sex and the City episode when Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, gets the boot courtesy of a Post-It note from her boyfriend of several weeks named Berger. Not even having a long explanation on a full size of paper is even worse than this impersonal way of breaking up.

Don't Murder the Messenger

Messengers for relationship news were the way of the playground. If a girl liked a boy and wanted to 'go out' with him, her friend would ask for her and vice versa. Once it was time to break up, the same method could be employed to the point where young grade school couples rarely actually talked to each other at all. However, the problem comes about when adults try to employ this childish break up method. The breaker assumes that the painful act will be easier if the breakee is approached by a friend. This method allows the breaker to avoid the shouting and the yelling as well as the fighting by having the personal touch of an actual individual tell the breakee without having to be the exact one to do it. Referring to Sex and the City again, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) tells about how she was broken up by means of a guy's doorman as he explained the man was not coming downstairs ever. In the movie starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Julia Roberts called America's Sweethearts, the character played by Catherine Zeta Jones made her sister played by Julia Roberts break up with all of her boyfriends to the point Julia's high school yearbook quote was 'Hey, we have to talk.'

Through Text Message.

Imagine yourself receiving a text message from your partner telling you that he/she wants to break up with you. How does it feel? Isn't it outright humiliating? A dumpee who gets dumped via sms will definitely get hurt and feel like he/she was betrayed and disrespected.

More so, the person is left with a lot of unanswered questions resulting in a feeling of resentment toward his/her partner. The situation will be left hanging and the relationship will have no closure.

Despite the pain, a break up sms could be advantageous for a dumpee in the sense that the person will realize that what he/she thought was real was actually fake. There was no real relationship at all because of the fact that his/her partner does not even have the decency and courage to tell him/her personally about the break up.

For some dumpees, it is more difficult to move on from the break up because they have no idea what the heck went wrong in the relationship and they tend to dwell on the bad experience and lose their self-esteem. On the other hand, some people find receiving a break sms as an eye-opener and are even thankful to have found out that they were dating a loser. They're just glad that things are over.

And what do you think? What is the worst way to break up ?