Dear Aislynn:

You are welcome. This is an opportunity to exercise assertiveness and with your mother! I sure hope (and can’t imagine otherwise, for any decent mother, that is) that she loves you enough to … keep loving you when you assert yourself. You can imagine, if you have a child, that you will keep loving your child when she asserts herself. You would love her for it, you would want your own daughter to assert herself and successfully. So you would encourage her, by showing her approval, not disapproval, when she asserts herself.

It really is your personal business whether you date anyone or not. You should never date anyone to please him/ someone else. And so asserting yourself in this area, which is purely your own business, is most important. Even if it brought about a disapproval from your mother, it would still be the right and healthy thing for you to do. Hope to read an update from you here, in the future, about this. (and/ or thoughts otherwise).

anita