| Suzie
writes, "I recently began talking to my
best friend's younger brother. He is 18 and I am 24
(I also have a 2 year old son). We have know each other
for almost 10 years and have become extremely close
within the last 4 months. We decided to go public with
our relationship and have received nothing but grief and
hard feelings. His family and I used to be very close
and now I am not even welcome in their house anymore.
They have turned anything they can against us but we are
sticking to our feelings and not backing down. We love
each other and have a such a
strong connection between us, neither of us are
going to give this up. I don't feel as though I am doing
anything wrong (my boyfriend is an adult and we are not
breaking any laws) but how can we make everyone else see
that?" Some parents want to
control the lives of their adult children
It is
clear that the two families are struggling to accept
that
childhood friendship can
become
romantic and the fact that you have a six-year age
gap, which is something that freaks out a lot of people.
The fact that you are also a
single mom does not help either because his parents
don't want an 18-year old guy dealing with
parenting so early on in his life.
In my opinion, your plan is a good one because nothing
can
prove that your relationship is a serious one
(rather than some kind of
fetish for
young guys) than by living it. If he demonstrates
that he
loves you not because you are older but because you
are a
good woman, and that you
love him
not because he is young but because he is a
good man, I am hopeful that eventually everyone
around you will see that this is a
couple in love. Right now their hope is that by
pushing you both, they can
force
you to breakup (I wouldn't be surprised that his
parents still see and treat him as a kid and are,
therefore, hoping that they can push him around, and
they see you as a
grownup,
manipulative woman who has
seduced that young man).
This is not going to be easy for next several months,
but stay strong, because many
women that
I spoke to have faced the same discrimination
regardless of their age or that of the men they love.
But in the end what matters is that you two are there
for each other and can
bring happiness to each other. |
