It's hard to keep a girl when you're almost never home

[Topstudent]

"Being a trucker is a lonely job. Plus, it's hard to keep a girl when you're almost never home."

I wrote this. It's supposed to mean something like that it's hard to get a girlfriend to stay in a relationship with you when you're almost never home. Is it natural? Does 'keep' work as intended? If not, what else would be natural? 'Hold onto'? Thanks a lot.

 

[5jj]

Yes.
Yes.
Hold on to also works.

 

[Skrej]

Not only is it natural, it's probably the most natural way to express it. Your two options would certainly be the most common ways to express it anyway, I think.

Otherwise you have to get kind of wordy and say something like "It's hard to maintain a relationship with a woman when you're almost never home".

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd go with the more simple "It's hard to maintain a relationship when you're almost never home". There's no reason to bring in the gender of the partner. If the speaker happens to be in a relationship with a woman, they can personalise the sentence by saying "It's hard to maintain the relationship with my girlfriend when I'm never home".

By making it a more generic statement, you're allowing for it to be used by both male and female truckers and means that their sexuality wouldn't be explicitly revealed.

My suggested sentence at the start of this post could be used by a straight male trucker, a straight female trucker, a gay male trucker, a gay female trucker, a bisexual non-binary person, and so on. I'm sure you get my point.