Abby Connolly
I’ve always sympathized with people who feel pressured to jump right back into the dating scene after losing their partner or going through a traumatic breakup.
One woman recently snapped at her mom, who has been pushing her widowed brother to start dating again for the sake of his children.
She’s a 21-year-old college student who lives with her 35-year-old brother in his home near her campus.
She moved in with her brother partially because he tragically lost his wife five years ago and needed help raising his three young kids, ages 11 to six years old. Her brother had to start working harder at his job, and she wanted to help care for the kids, who were more like little siblings to her.
“My brother has never shown any interest in dating again and has told our family many times that he doesn’t plan on remarrying or moving on, especially to our mom, who is always trying to set him up with some friend’s daughter or another,” she said.
“She is visiting for a few weeks. When my brother came home from work last night, we were sitting around for a bit after the kids went to sleep. My mom started with her usual [questions], asking if there was anyone new in his life.”
When her brother told their mom he wasn’t seeing anyone, she went on this guilt-tripping rant about how it had been so long since he lost his wife, and his kids were sad not to have a mother figure in their lives, and he should do something about that.
“It was very uncomfortable, as I could see my brother didn’t want to have this conversation again,” she said.
“He got up and excused himself. [My mom] turned and asked me what was wrong with him, and I basically told her she needed to stop acting like such an overbearing harpy, that this is why he hasn’t moved back home, and [that] she needs to stop pushing this on him.”
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