Dear Queenie,
My boyfriend and I have been going together for several years and we are starting to think about getting a place of our own and living together. We both have jobs and we think we can afford it. But when I told my mother what we are thinking about, she said it would change my relationship with her.
Queenie, I don’t want to hurt her, but I want to live my own life. What do you have to say about all this?—Mom’s only child
Dear Only child,
Your mother may be afraid of losing the special relationship she has with you. Has she met your boyfriend? If not, introduce them and give her a chance to consider that if you live with him she will not be losing a daughter but gaining a “son-out-of-law”.
However, your mother also may have religious objections to your living with a man “out of wedlock”. That is a very special consideration about which I cannot advise you.
