I found out this weekend that my son has had a girlfriend for 6 months and didn’t tell me. He didn’t tell me- his brother found out and announced it to the family.
He is lower sixth so of course he’s entitled to have a girlfriend and not to say anything, and I’m pleased he has met someone he clearly likes. But I just feel really sad that all this time he’s not mentioned it (not helped by his sibling, when I told them I felt sad, joked that it’s because I’m a bad mum). I am quite an open and chatty person, and he’s obviously been going off to see this girl when telling me he was going to a friends (in all likelihood I think he does go to the friends and they then head out and meet up with a group of girls, so he’s not exactly lying, just omitting information). I’d love to have the type of relationship where he feels he could talk to me about this type of stuff and am not quite sure where it’s gone wrong. Or maybe there’s nothing I could have done- it’s just the way he is? Any tips about getting him to open up in the future would be really appreciated. I’m dreading uni - I genuinely don’t think I’ll hear from him…