I would like to ask the list some advice about dating. I recently met a
friend of mine of the net and we spent a few days together at my parents beach
house in Destin Florida. We got to know eachother ok and have spent litterally
hundreds of hours on the phone getting to know one another. Its been an
interesting experience.
     What does this have to do with my disability? Well let me get to that right
now. Every time I have gone out and done something with a woman I am interested
in I do it in a fishbowl, my family sees everything and after the woman leaves
they critique how I act and how I dress. I don't drive for physical reasons so
my parents and sisters see everything in the beginning. Then they take me aside
and give me the Ken doll treatment as well as well as my mother giving me
speeches on things I need to make an effort not to do. To be honest its all
getting very sickening.
     I date older women and am 27 and the woman I am dating is 35. Every time I
got around my parents I felt like a teenager in the forties going out on a porch
date. It did not feel like a date I feel like I am being watched all the time.
Its like me and the woman I am with have not time to just be a couple
     So my solution to this problem has been to give my parents short answers
about the nature of the relationship all together. The less I say the less
unsolicited authoritative advice I am going to get. They have asked how the
meeting went I am just going to say OK nothing else. I still live with my
parents due to the physical problems I have. My three sisters and my parents
have always been there in the beginning of every relationship I have. Its hard
for me to just be myself if they constantly treat me like a Ken doll and tell me
how to act. Can you give me some advice here?