he won't commit but won't let me go

He kept making the effort, but they just wouldn’t accept him. Their reasons never made sense to me. I still don’t understand what, exactly, they think is so wrong with him. It felt like they had made up their minds, and nothing I said or did made any difference.

I told my parents, again, that I wasn’t going to visit unless my partner was included. That was the rule I’d set. But they wouldn’t budge. They kept asking why I couldn’t just come see them by myself.

Any time I tried to explain, it circled back to the same thing. They said I was being weird, that I wasn’t flexible.

We had a huge argument. I stood my ground. I said I cared about them, but I didn’t think they had any real reason for refusing to make an effort with my partner. They kept insisting, trying to make me feel like I was the problem for not just doing what they wanted.

It got more heated. They wanted to have a relationship with me, but only if I left him out. I started to feel like I was just being manipulated, that they were trying to get their way by making me feel guilty. I didn’t want to be in places or around people where my partner wasn’t welcome.

I went no contact.