mortensorchid Posted October 5, 2011 Posted October 5, 2011 I was talking about this issue not too long ago with a friend of mine and would like to know if anyone here has ever encountered anything similar when dealing with their dating life and their family. My family (as in my mom, dad and sister) is rather stiff to begin with. Mom is very prim and proper, Dad ruled our house with an iron fist. My sister, being the younger of the two siblings, like all younger children in families, seemed to have it as easy as possible. Some of it goes with being the oldest child and having to "break in" the parents, I realized. When I started dating during my high school years, my parents, especially my father, had a very hard time letting go. Eventually they let up and they really, almost unhealthily, loved my high school sweetheart to an almost sickening level. He and I broke up literally 20 years ago, and I don't think they have gotten over it truly. I feel like he was the golden boy, the one that they measure all others up against. Quite honestly, it does not matter who I have or haven't brought home to meet them since, no one is as good as he was and can ever be. They have, I am glad to say, stopped automatically hating whoever it was that I brought home. But, I am not happy to say that I don't feel like they really, truly like anyone I have ever brought home since. They will tolerate whoever it is, and as I am nearly 37 now and have not settled down, gotten married and had babies like all their other friends' kids, I think they would be happy if someone were willing to return a phone call let alone get to the point where I would bring them home to meet the parents. They are just as much grasping at straws as I am in some ways. Also, I have to realize that they are the last of some rather odd Victorian type values in the world. They were high school sweethearts, never dated anyone else besides each other, and seemed to think that when two people got together they were automatically thinking marriage when that's impossible to think now. Maybe that's why they had such a hard time dealing with me. And, like I said, they are stiff as boards. I am often times invited to family parties and the like without a care in the world, while whenever I have brought friends and signifigant others to any of my family functions, they leave feeling rather like they have just been to a White House dinner. That fact I will have to deal with, but has anyone else experienced things like this? If so, how do you deal with it? I just have to accept it as is, I guess.
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