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How would you explain to a date that you have an abusive family and you're the only sane person? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As far as I know, the current culture around dating/relationships includes meeting your SO's family and letting them meet yours. And probably sometime on the first few dates, at least asking about family. Problem is, my family is batshit insane.

My parents are in an abusive relationship and constantly scream at each other
My father is a violent abuser who avoids talking to people because he can't even pretend to be sane
I had to raise myself because most of their advice was hateful trash; they tried to raise me into a bigoted loner asshole who only cares about himself and ties his self-worth to pretending he's better than everyone else
My brother is an emotionally volatile gun owner in a relationship with an insane psycho who abused her cat to death
They all believe that people who are different should be suppressed or purged from society because God or something

I think at this point, my family may be too dangerous to maintain ties to at all. I really wish I could burn it all down and start over, but I might not be so lucky due to my fledgling financial situation.

Ridding myself of my family's influence has been a decade-long project that I've been working hard on, and I gotta say, "Your parents raised you well" has got to be my least favorite compliment.

Jokes aside, I'm interested in hearing about experiences from others in similar situations. How did you talk about it?

I feel like this is an unavoidable red flag either way for a lot of people (After all, how would anyone know that I'm as sane as I claim to be?), but I'd still like to find the least horrible way to talk about it without lying.

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I'm not sure why any of this is somehow a red flag. Your partner is going to be dating you, not your family.

Maybe my experience isn't the norm, but I find that a significant portion of people I meet have fucked up families.

Yes, people often ask about families when meeting each other, but it's perfectly fine and common enough ime to say that you aren't close with/don't have a good relationship with one or multiple family members.

My advice would be to keep it brief and somewhat vague at first...just stating what I said above should be sufficient enough. You're getting to know each other, but you're not there to learn every single intimate detail about every moment of someone's life. Don't go into a long tirade or story about anything at first. Over time, you will get to know each other and can slowly talk about more bits and pieces with time.