Hey all! It’s a relief to be back here and a good break posting after shoveling some snow for the last few hours (ugh). All that time this was on my mind, I thought I’d ask here.

My boyfriend and I have been together for a while and it’s been quite great. However I’ve been noticing that he is finding it hard to say no or even stand up for himself/us to his old mother.

We may have plans and all that, though when she starts asking him to do errands, he finds it hard to say no and indulges her first. This is not something I would want into our future when we are married and have children, which is our plan. I want our family to be a priority and right now it doesn’t look promising. She is very controlling and sees me as taking her son away from her, she doesn’t like our traditional lifestyle (though I admit he sticks by our lifestyle despite her disapproval). As for him, he follows her almost every little command and favor at the expense of our time.

Lately there’s been some emergency matters so it’s a bit hard to talk to him about that without sounding harsh or that I don’t care about his family since they’re going through some things. However, it has been like this even before then. I don’t know what to do. It’s only been aggravated now because he feels they need him even more at this hard time, even more he won’t say no.