I’m 20F, he’s 25M. We met in January and have been dating since last month. He’s already met my parents - they love him, and he hangs out at our house all the time. Literally no one has any issues with him, he’s super welcome here. I invited him to sleep over for a few days this week just for fun, but he said he’s not comfortable with it - apparently it feels too “intimate” for him? Like, he’s got this thing about doing private stuff with other people around. I just want him to relax a bit. We’re all adults here, and everyone knows people have private lives. How can I help him feel more okay with it?
I’m really close with my family and also a homebody. It’d be fun to have him around as part of the household for a bit, part of the trivial day to day life. Monotonous domestic life…
He is the person with a home. If you want him as part of your household, you should consider moving in together in a place that doesn’t belong to your parents.
When you find someone to make a family with, you are making a new family. It is not functional long term to try to work him into your existing family like that. One woman’s comfortable monotony is another man’s perpetual guest status.
I think the more feasible version of what you want would be some sort of family vacation that he is invited along for, but even that needs to come with private space for the two of you each day. Neutral territory lets people build a new status quo, and your parent’s place isn’t neutral at all. I know this might all sound dramatic and insane right now, but I’m speaking from a lifetime of experience—putting him in your parents space for over 24 hours is going to create mental stress for him that will have an adverse effect on your relationship, especially if you don’t acknowledge his stress as valid.
Thanks. I really appreciate the advice. I’m just not an inhibited person at all, so I find it difficult to relate to these kinds of feelings.
And that is ok, you don’t have to personally understand it to acknowledge that his anxieties are valid and real. I wish you the best. It sounds like you have a good guy and good parents.
Just channel that inhibition towards traditional exhibitionism instead of parental exhibitionism, and I think you’ll be set.
Personally I think @WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com’s take is a bit prescriptive, but I do think that if you want a good long-term relationship, then it’s about finding what’s comfortable for both of you, not just for one of you. Boundary pushing can be OK, but usually only with prior consent or better some expression of desire… If either one of you pushes the other into doing something the other doesn’t really want, that’s probably not gonna pan out well in the long run. Listening (especially to the “why” part) and working together is important.