Looking for love in this day and age can sometimes be a challenge.
So when you eventually find the right person, you would hope that the people you hold dear would like your new partner too.
While many people will be happy for you and embrace the person in your life, there will be others who won't.
Maria Sullivan, a dating expert and the vice president of Dating.com shares tips on how to deal with the lack of approval of your partner.
Give it time
If you do find yourself trying to ease tensions between your friends/family and your significant other, don’t try to make them spend time together until it gets better.
If it’s going to happen, it will happen naturally in time - and pushing them to get closer might actually drive them further apart.
This might not happen overnight, so be patient and allow both parties to come around.
Try to identify the cause of conflict
If those who truly care about you don’t care for your date, try to get to the root cause of their disapproval.
You’ll need to know the cause if you want to work towards a solution. If your family or friends don’t have valid reasons behind their disapproval, it can certainly leave you feeling frustrated and alienated.
Set boundaries
When it comes to protecting your relationship, it is important to set clear boundaries on the opinions you’re willing to hear from your friends and family.
If you’re feeling safe and happy in your relationship, yet the people in your life are being critical of it in an overly vocal way, make it clear that there is a line they should not cross when it comes to sharing their opinions with you.
At the end of the day, it is your relationship, not theirs.
Get an outside opinion
It may be helpful to get an outside opinion from someone who’s not as involved in the day-to-day.
Hearing constant negative feedback can be a lot to handle and can disorient you from the reality of your relationship.
Consider talking to a therapist or truly neutral party who can help you better process how you’re feeling or understand where your friends and family are coming from with their comments.