If Not for You question

If so, they never told me

Yes. My father disapproved. And I married him anyway. My Mom and him got along great. Was more a brother than in-law to my sister and brother. Married 40 yrs. Some ups and downs. But it is a good marriage. That's life. That's marriage. We both work at it. And we laugh a lot.

Cecelia,
Thanks for inviting me to your discussion. My parents never really gave much of an input about anyone that I dated, including my husband. I know they have grown to love him over the years that we have been married. I will say that as a parent of 2 married children, we want someone to love, care and support our child. We would never say anything but I have sure prayed about the mate in their future before they ever met them. You want them to marry someone with the same values and beliefs.

Once or twice. The one particular time she went on and on about how crappy he was. I said, 'mmom, you havent met him yet.' 'I know, I'm just basing it on what you say about him.' Hahaha, god, I miss her!!! Remember, they're just looking out for their kiddos.

My father disapproved of husband because he was older.

I thought it might have happened with me, I met my husband at work and he wore an earing, smoked a lot, used to drink and drive home (quite a distance back then) and was really sarcastic but there was just something about him. I did date him, we were engaged about 5 months later and then married 9 mths after the engagement. My parents adore him and we have now been married for 27 years.

No I met&fell in love with my husband in college luckily my family approved.If they hadn't I would of followed my heart,I always had the sense to trust my intuition,

I have, many times. I married one of them, and it lasted 6 years but I did get a wonderful daughter out of it. My parents held off saying anything until the marriage was over. I have such terrible taste in men, I have sworn them off for good now.

Yes and although they talked to me about their concerns, they never stopped supporting my decisions. of course they were almost always right 😀. Luckily they love and thoroughly approve of my husband.

My parents loved my husband right from the start even though he was divorced and had a four yr old daughter. Sadly my dad passed away 11 months after we married. We will celebrate 36 yrs in August.

I met my husband when we were very young (16 and 18). Over the years, my parents traded places not liking him. Seemed as if one always did. LOL But in the beginning, they didn't want me seeing an "older" boy. Let's face it, I was a junior in high school and he was in college. I probably wouldn't have liked that for my girls either. But here we are - blood, sweat, tears, pain, joy, happiness; the whole messy lot of life - 31 years later.

Yes, my son's father. We were married three years. Nobody in my family liked him and that made me more determined than ever to marry him. Divorced him, and have been married 34 years to my hubby that helped me raise my son. Everybody in my family loves my hubby.

Cecelia wrote: "So, have you ever dated anybody to which your parent(s) disapproved? What did you do about it? Did your significant other ever gain your parent(s) approval?"

My mother never liked anyone I dated until we stopped dating. Then she would say what a nice boy he was...go figure ! 😆😆

Yes, my son's father. My folks saw right through him. He became abusive after I was pregnant and I left him when my son was 5 months old. He'll be 17 next month, he has Down Syndrome and while it isn't always easy I wouldn't change a thing. Also, his father has nothing to do with him and hasn't in years, his lose.

I have yet to have a boyfriend or go on a first date.

Yes I have on more than one occasion and it turned out that my parents were right he wasn't as he seemed. He was putting on a show to get to know me.

Cecelia wrote: "So, have you ever dated anybody to which your parent(s) disapproved? What did you do about it? Did your significant other ever gain your parent(s) approval?"

Yes. I quit dating him.

My mom said she would never interfere with who we wanted to marry. She is so nonjudgmental and has always kept her opinion to herself. My husband says that if he ever left me, he would go home to my mom. His mom didn't like me very much when we were first dating. It took a lot of years, but she finally came to like me.

Yes, and we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary this year! I believe it was more circumstances than him. I was quite young, him 5 years older. My mother was seeing Deja vu from her early and doomed marriage to my father. His folks felt we hadn't known each other long enough (6 months) when we married. As we approach that special day fifty years ago, I understand parent concerns but am oh so grateful that we listened to our hearts!

My parents weren't sure about my husband when I started dating him. It was pretty much like Beth and Sam, where he didn't seem like my "type." Over the years (33 this August), they came to know and understand what I've seen in him all along. My dad has leaned on him a lot now that my mom is gone.

No, but even if they had I'm the one that has to live with my choice.

Of course! The odd thing is, they approved of him when I started dating him, but he quickly turned into a twerp and lost their approval - and eventually, much later unfortunately, mine!

Cecelia wrote: "So, have you ever dated anybody to which your parent(s) disapproved? What did you do about it? Did your significant other ever gain your parent(s) approval?"

No.

Sort of. I dated a man who was separated from his wife, fortunately no kids. Mom was upset as he was older as well as still married. She didn't do much else than tell me she was worried for me, but I knew she would have been happy if we had stopped seeing each other. Once he got his divorce she was okay which was good because that is who I married. We were happily married for 34 years before he passed away from cancer this past November.

I dated someone kind of the opposite - I liked him, but my family liked him SO much that I felt rather pushed into the whole thing. But turns out they were right :)

Nope! My parents are very good about trusting me and not butting in!

Yes, I did date someone my parent, he (they were divorced) didn't approve of due to his race so therefore it couldn't be resolved. So, I continued dating this person until if fizzled out. Learned that sometimes parents aren't always right just like in the story.

Yes, I rebelled a bit. However, my parents were right about him. He was no good. However if they were not so adamant and mean to me about it, I probably would have seen his true colors before then.

Three times and ironically they liked them but were worried what society would do to me.

First time, we had moved for a bit to a small town and since I had no experience with racism at that point (I was a junior in high school) and my parents had always taught us to treat people equally I didn't see an issue dating this guy I fell for who was African-American. My parents liked him but were scared for me because unbeknownst to me the town we were now living in had racial issues. Thankfully nothing ever happened to either of us. We drifted apart like most teens.

In college I slowly began to come out as a bisexual and dated a girl on our basketball team. I never told my dad because the experience was bad enough telling my Irish Catholic mom. Thereafter whenever I was in a relationship with a girl I just never told them.

My most current relationship is with a Mexican guy. It's just like the highschool boyfriend all over again. My parents like him but we're in an area that is not very friendly towards hispanic people and since he can't go around wearing a shirt that say "I was born in the US" with a copy of his birth certificate on the back they worry.

I'm so glad my parents raised us to not judge based on skin color or religion (wish I could add LGBTQ friendly in there) but I also wish they didn't raise us in areas that were so heavily influenced with that kind of prejudice. It made life confusing and stressful. It severely impacted my dating life for the worst.