NC for this as it could out me.
I'm 30 and my brother is 33. We have always been quite successful in academic studies and have good careers now in fields that interest us both and are quite specialist. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not but both of us have never really got off the ground with relationships. I've had a few dalliances and one long term one about 10 years ago but since then nothing serious (not for want of trying I might add). He is chronically shy but trying to meet people.
Anyway that's a bit of the background. We have two aunts and both have two children (so four cousins) and they're a similar age to us. Whenever we meet at a family event the only thing our family want to know is if we are dating anyone. They switch off about everything else. The cousins are all settled and either married or living with a partner, a couple of them have kids, and I swear they look at us with pity/ amusement. It's the first thing they ask us each time.
So the thing that really pushed me to to post this is I think one of my aunts is being a bit bitchy to me, she gave me a gift for my birthday, a bracelet which had an engraving: "Better to have lived and lost than never to have loved at all." Do you think that's a weird thing to give to a 30 year old niece? I think it's such a weird engraving!
AIBU to think people write you off as a failure if you're not married with kids?