Adapted from an online discussion.
Dear Carolyn: I’ve been with my girlfriend a little over a year. Like last year, I plan to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family, who live about 90 minutes from me.
My girlfriend is upset that I didn’t invite her to join me. In all honesty, it’s because my family would take this as an indication that I plan to marry her, and that would just produce incredible pressure from them. It’s all they think about because I’m the only kid who isn’t married yet. But I’m only 29 and not ready to rush into anything, so I don’t want to even put that idea into my girlfriend’s head.