Sorry, this is going to be long… I will start by saying that I am autistic and find any sort of social contact difficult, and if it’s in a strange place or with people I don’t really know it is extremely distressing for me. However, other people do not fully comprehend this as I am polite and make an effort to mask my distress.
I live at the other end of the country to my family. I am extremely close to my sister and speak all the time on the phone etc but only see each other couple of times a year. I last saw her in September last year due to COVID.
My dad is ok but I had an unhappy childhood and our relationship is polite and superficial rather than close. He and my mum divorced a couple of years ago and he has been seeing someone else ever since. She has an adult daughter older than me who has been lovely to my dad. Met her once and I found her incredibly rude and judgemental and she took over the conversation, even when I was just trying to chat briefly to my dad one to one (she had unexpectedly invited herself to lunch with us). Grateful that she is nice to dad but didn’t make a great first impression with me. I will call the daughter Mary for this post.
I spoke to dad on the phone on Sunday.mentioned I am coming to visit my sister and talked about meeting with him too. He said ‘we will have to sort out when to take you round to Mary’s house to visit.’ I made a polite excuse why i couldn’t go. He then said ‘we will discuss this some other time. Bye’ and finished the call.
I was very annoyed at how he seemed to dismiss me and ignore my answer cos it wasn’t what he wanted (history of being controlling in the past) and that he didn’t even ask me. He basically told me this is what we will do, but I’m 43. I should get to decide what to do with my time and I want to spend what little time I do have with my sister, not a stranger. Plus obviously I didn’t warm to her anyway and would find it distressing to be in a strange house with people I didn’t know.
My dad knows I am autistic but has never shown any interest in how this afffects me and has downplayed my difficulties (adult diagnosis). He doesn’t accept us having our own opinions and makes no effort to get to know us as people. Also, my sister and brother haven’t even met Mary, but it is just me that is expected to go round (I think this is because my siblings would tell him where to go but I am expected to go along with it). My sister didn’t understand why he wants me to go round there either.
I am unsure whether I am being a bit unfair but my main issues are re my autism and the way my dad worded it, and expects to discuss this again. As far as I am concerned there is nothing to discuss. But my dad is a major sulker and will make a big drama over whatever I say. How can I be polite but firm when he brings this up again? I am really anxious about saying the wrong thing and him having the marry on with me, or him mentioning it infront of his partner and putting me on the spot.
I t some of you will just think I should go and visit for a while. But this is a big thing for me and I had counselling after my diagnosis to help me work on maintaining my barriers. An abusive childhood and years of trying to be polite/ fit in took a huge toll on my mental health. So I now tend to say no to things that will make me too uncomfortsble/ distressed, which has helped me massively.