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ijust told my mom that she should looks at my coming out letter.

Discussion in 'Family, Friends, and Relationships' started by staries, Apr 4, 2015.

  1. staries

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    I just told my mom that she should look at the resources I put in my coming out letter just so she could understand more and maybe apologize for how she's reacted. Now her whole mood had changed and she's silent...and she said that she's not pushing it away and that she thinks about it all the time. What do I do to ease the tension?
     
  2. PatrickUK

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    The key thing here is time. I don't know when you told your mom, but if it's quite recent she will need time to consider everything and come to terms with her own feelings. Even if it's a few months ago, she may still be processing everything.

    If you provided resources for her, that's good - really good, but allow her time and space to access those resources. I'm sure she will, but it's not something you can't really move along or confront without increasing the tension.

    I know it's very difficult, but try to consider how long it took for you to come to terms with things. I'm guessing it didn't happen in a few short days or weeks? The same is true for our parents, it doesn't always happen that we receive immediate acceptance and understanding - they have to come to terms with it all too. Your coming out may have shocked and surprised your mom a lot.

    Try to maintain a reasonable tone with your mom, even if she has said things that have been hurtful. Many of the hurtful comments arise from a lack of understanding and awareness of LGBT issues and as hard as it is to set those hurt feelings aside it's imperative that we don't react and add more heat to the situation. When we get upset it tells our parents that we are not happy or certain about who we are, so they dig in even more and we quickly find ourselves in an emotional tug of war with them - precisely what we hope to avoid. So take deep breaths and remain composed and patient while she works her way through her own stages of acceptance. If you really need a place to vent, bring it here.

    Stay strong! :slight_smile: