Thank you again for helping me in this situation Anita. Seeing that you responded to something on here is about the only bit of solace I’m finding emotionally during this period of time.

My parents divorced when I was about 8. Before then, she was really great. She was the compassionate one of the 2, but never was too soft or too hard on us. After the divorce, my mom stayed single until I was about 20, focusing on raising me and my 1 year older sister. She worked 50-60 hours a week as a machinist when we got to around 15 and remarried when I turned 20. She divorced afew years later, and is single now in her mid 50s.

In terms of her treatment of me growing up, I suppose one might say she was “too soft”, but I don’t think anything stands out outside of the typical mother behaviors. I look back and can say she did what she thought was best any time she did something, and really tried as a single mother.

One thing that happened that I think plays a big role in my social makeup, definitely for worse, is that when I was in the 7’th grade, about 12-13 years old, she took us out of public school and began homeschooling us. With her working as much as she was, it resulted typically in us just sleeping late, watching alot of tv, and not doing much school work. And also not socializing like our peers that stayed in school were doing. I believe I missed out on alot of growing, and skillsets that I should have developed in my teenage years as a result. If I met someone new today, I can hold a conversation with them like anyone else could, so it’s not like there are many surface level problems that are very noticable about me you could pick up on as a result of lacking those social skills when I was younger. I feel I picked them up eventually along the way. But I DO believe it plays a very big part in the problems I face with dating, attraction, and women in general. I feel like alot of teenage boys in high school are probably more comfortable speaking with and making friends with women their age than I am doing the same with women my age. Although I don’t know if that’s normal or if it’s just par for the course.