I (M20) am feeling torn about staying in my relationship with my girlfriend (F22)
Today I had a very hard discussion with my girlfriend about our relationship and how I am not sure if I want to stay with her or not. Let me give some context so you know why I am so torn.
My girlfriend is amazing. I love her more than I have ever loved anyone. She does so much for me like cooking, cleaning, and is always there when I need her. We come from very different backgrounds. She grew up very poor and has been through it all so she struggles with depression and anxiety. I grew up in a religious home and I would say my parents definitely sheltered me a bit, but this difference has never been a problem. Any issue or difference that we have had we have been able to work through it and make changes in our relationship and make it better.
Right now though, her depression has become very severe to where things do not look like they will get better. She has become suicidal and her doctors are not doing what they need to and she just keeps getting worse and worse. The reason this whole conversation started was because I am about start nursing school which will be very stressful and will take a lot effort and time away from our relationship. She and I both agree that I can't be worried about her while I'm in school and since her doctors are lacking, it doesn't look like she will get better for a while.
I also told her some other concerns that I have been having as well. She has a son (M 2.5) who is from another father who was not involved in his life in the beginning hardly at all, and quite frankly was a piece of shit to my girlfriend at the time. He is now involved in their son's life, and began so about the same time I began dating her about a year ago. I am struggling a lot with having this child in my life. It is stressful and I have a hard time connecting with him especially because I do not feel like I have much say in how he's being raised.
My girlfriend runs a private in home daycare for a living in our home and so she is constantly with him. I work early in the morning part time and then come home work on school (I was online this semester) and then when the daycare is closed I feel almost obligated to take some time with her son so that she can have a break from him. I spend usually a couple of hours with him either alone or with her as well and then he goes to bed around 8 which allows us about 2 hours before I have to go sleep in order to work the next day.
I feel like I never get time to myself and when I do have free time I'm usually working on school or trying to clean around the house. I used to play video games with my friend but that part of my life is not really a thing any more and I feel that I just don't have the time to do it with everything else going on. Especially since anytime we are without her son ( his dad takes him a night a week) we try to spend quality time together.
I also really want to move away when I graduate because I have career goals that I can't achieve in our current town, but her family is here as well as her son's father. We agreed to move to a region that is about 2 hours away because it was a good compromise so that she could still see her family and be able to exchange her son with his father regularly. I can see this dividing us in the future even though we have come to an agreement. I also could see her son's father fight us on moving away which would ruin my life because I cannot stay in this town.
I have told her all of these concerns and am really worried about her mental health cause I don't know what else to do for her. I want to stay with her so bad because I know I would have an amazing life with her but there are just so many things right now that just make that seem impossible.
I don't know if I should try and stay with her and just try to get some more alone time and allow her to focus on herself a little bit more, or if we should just break up and I move on. I'm feeling very torn and am asking you Reddit for advice on what to do. I'm struggling a lot.
TLDR: I want to stay with my girlfriend who is the love of my life, but her depression and child is making it very difficult for me.
Posted Dec 16, 2018, 11:42 PM UTC