I'd first like to mention that, although I am not a woman or even a parent, I used this forum once before when in a dire situation and the advice I got was fantastic and was the push I needed to get out of my situation.
Also, the post below is long but I have wrote a summary at the bottom as I feel like I need advice desperately and I'm unsure if being in isolation on my own is making me not see things clearly. I also felt like I had to write everything down for myself at least.
If you read the entire thing or just the summary, I appreciate anyone who takes the time to help.
Anyway, I'm 26M and have been in a relationship with my girlfriend (21) for a year and a half now. We met through work in a restaurant over summer but she is normally at university which is just over an hour away. The relationship has had a couple of bumpy bits but overall is relaxed with little, to no arguing. As we only see each other for a couple days every week or 2 weeks, we often go on days out or dates so the relationship is still fun and overall, there really is little issue.
That was until the start of autumn last year. I had moved into my own flat at the start of summer and with university done, my girlfriend moved back and resumed work in our restaurant. I presumed that this would mean her practically living with me over the summer, giving us a chance to see what living together would be like once university was done. However the reality was that I could count the amount of times she stayed at my flat on 2 hands with some to spare. I would still keep letting her know when I was working each week and which days she could stay around if she wanted but didn't press it any further as I didn't want to make her feel pressured or anything. After 3 months however it had started to cross my mind as to why.
About a month after her return to university, I went to visit her and we went out for a meal. While there, I brought up that the lease on my flat was due up soon (6 month contract) and that they had asked me to sign a year extension. The main issue however was that the move out date was boxing day so whether I moved out or signed a year extension, I would still eventually be moving out at a time that I would be incredibly busy. I mentioned that I planned to ask for a 9 month extension to avoid this and then from there, have no issue signing another year, at which point, my girlfriend would have been out of university for 4-5 months and we could then think about looking for our own house, fairly acceptable I thought as we would have been together nearly 3 years at that point.
Her response however was "Don't plan your future around me". She went on to explain that she wouldn't know where she would be at after university in terms of a career etc. The conversation then moved on from there and we barely touched on that topic for the rest of the meal.
Over time it began to play on my mind more and more but as we moved into November, work had ramped up and I threw myself into it and put those thoughts to the back of my mind.
Christmas had left me incredibly stressed from work and had been difficult financially with living on my own during the most expensive time of the year. Throughout January and February, I became incredibly anxious over money and my work was no longer helping to distract my mind from my issues and I started to become depressed. I had mentioned this to my girlfriend every now and then but, due to my own need to feel independent, I kept telling her that I might be down for a while but that after a couple of months, a few more pay days and some resolved issues at work and I would be okay. She told me that if it did get worse then she was there for me to talk to.
Towards the end of February, although my financial issues looked soon to be recovering, my work issues were unresolved and after 3-4 months of anxiety, it had began to get on top of me. On a visit to my girlfriends, I told her that everything was getting a bit too much and that I was very depressed. She seemed offended and told me "Not to say something like that." I reaffirmed my statement to her, at which point we spoke for a while. I brought up the comment she had mentioned a few months prior "Don't plan your future around me". I was hopeful that I may have misconstrued her true meaning at the time however she pretty much reiterated her initial point and than added that she didn't know where I would be financially at that time. I said it was unrealistic to know where I would be financially after a year and a half. She agreed, maybe begrudgingly, but then added that she would be more likely to want to get a house after "a year or 2 after university."
This is where I began to realise the main issue between us. Age. It wasn't an issue in our relationship in the short term but when planning a future, we seemed to differ incredibly. I couldn't blame her either. Her plan was to get a house at 23-24, married in the next 2 and then kids 2-3 years after that, a plan a lot of my friends had at that age.
All of this would be fine for her perhaps being 28/29, but that would leave me in my mid 30's which is where the issue is. At 26, I have a number of friends my age that are married, some with kids and the twinges of jealousy are starting to appear. I feel as though I'm at a stage in my life where I want to start that whole process. This isn't straight away, but whereas her rough plan is 7-8 years for kids, mine would probably be within the next 3-4.
Not long after this, the coronavirus began to emerge as a much bigger issue than was first reported and I went to visit my girlfriend 6 days before the lockdown. I told her that we were likely to go into lockdown within a week if we kept tracking Italy but she said that she didn't think it would get to that point. I warned her to at least plan for if we do just in case and she should think about where she would stay for it, if she would stay near her university, go home to her parents or if she wanted to, she could stay at mine. She said that staying at mine would be nice but she would speak to her parents about it first.
The next day while still at her house, my work announced that we would be closing in 3 days and my job and money way now completely up in the air. I mentioned this as a warning that things are going to get bad everywhere but she still dismissed it, saying that she would speak to her parents about it soon but she will wait until the government announces things before acting.
The weekend arrived and the situation had got dramatically worse. My girlfriend and I were on the phone and I told her that she had to decide soon where she planned to stay or risk getting stuck living over an hour away from her parents and me. The conversation ended quickly after then and I messaged her to ask if she was annoyed at all. She said that I was just being very negative about the whole thing and she was just trying to stay positive and enjoy as much time with her uni friends as she could before they all went back. I then remembered that she had mentioned her mum freaking out while the 2 of them were on the phone because one of her friends kept posting negative things about the coronavirus on facebook and it was stopping her from being positive.
For that weekend, Boris Johnson began asking everybody to social distance without enforcing a proper lockdown yet. On the Sunday, my girlfriend had her parents going up to visit her. She mentioned that they were going to go for a walk by the river so I told her to enjoy, trying not to appear constantly negative even though I had seen reports that day that tourist spots were heaving with people.
She replied a few hours later that her day was good but the river was ridiculously busy though. Shortly after this I saw on her Instagram story that it wasn't just the 3 of them, it was them, a girl from her house, 2 guys from one house,a girl from another house and another guy from another house. There was 7 of them in total and, whilst on the phone to her later in the evening, she mentioned that a woman who was there, stepped off to the side as to not go near them (As I would if a big group of 7 people was taking up the entire path at this time). Her dad in response to this, shouted at the woman "Don't come outside then" to which my girlfriend backed him up saying that he was right.
Following from that I asked her if she had now decided when she planned on coming back. She said that after a conversation with her parents, she would come back the next weekend. I told her that we would be in lockdown before then and she said that it would be fine. When I told her that once we're in lockdown you shouldn't move around anymore, to which she got annoyed again at my being negative.
Almost every day since then has led to more frustration for me. She keeps mentioning how her friends from 2 other households keep coming over and I will see on her social media that they're all playing games and coming into contact with each other. When I told her that it only takes one of them to come into contact with someone in a shop for example, that they could all get it. Her response was that I was acting as if they're all stupid and not taking it seriously, that they're keeping there distance from everyone when they go out.
She would mention how she had gone for a walk and then a run later that day, despite knowing she can only go out once a day for exercise.
A few days ago she went to the shops with 2 of the guys from another house one day with a football as they were bored. They stopped off in a park and were kicking it about when a PCSO came over to tell them that they can't be there. I backed up the PCSO when she told me and was annoyed as they weren't causing any harm.
I have told her that there are places around the UK that are now putting in road blocks and that she would have to come back home before they became a thing everywhere potentially. Her response was that if they did put road blocks everywhere, then that's when she would come home and she would just blag it at one of them as 'essential travel'. I asked her what she would say if they asked, if it was so essential, then why has she not gone home sooner? To which she got defensive and said that that wouldn't happen.
When we spoke the other night about her coming back, she has now pushed her date back until the end of April. I told her that she definitely wouldn't be able to move then and may as well stay there until the end of the lockdown. This was met with a similar response to the other times.
Earlier today she said that her and a few of the other houses on her street were having a communal BBQ on their shared garden.
I then asked why she had pushed it back that long to which she replied that while she is at university, there's a big group of them to keep each other entertained (Bearing in mind only one of these actually lives in her house at this point) and that if she came back, she would go insane being on her own with her parents and it would be horrible being on her own like that. Even though I'm unsure if I would let her in my flat in a lockdown, I still asked her why wouldn't she just think of staying at mine then. She responded that it just doesn't seem as easy and the conversation got moved on.
This is what led me to reach boiling point. I have been self isolating literally on my own for 2 weeks but she couldn't manage living with 2 other people because she would be too bored. Then when I mentioned moving in with me, which I notice is one less person, it's too much of an inconvenience. I then started feeling offended because it didn't cross her mind that her boyfriend who, a month ago told you he was depressed, will be spending weeks alone with little to no social interaction would potentially need support. Will be bored, lonely and have nobody to take his mind off his troubles.
I then began to ask myself if I don't get support from someone who loves me when I need it more than ever, then what is the point in this relationship anymore. Yes I enjoy her company and would want to settle down with her but is that worth waiting twice as long as what I want? Do I even want that now with someone who can act so selfishly and doesn't think to support her partner?
I went a whole day without replying to her messages and all I got back was a text near midnight that asked if "I was okay as I'd been a bit quiet today". In a time when nobody really has an excuse not to text, surely this should raise more alarm bells considering. When I replied and told her that I just didn't want to be social the day before, the conversation moved on without another mention of it.
Summary: My girlfriend and I have a mostly positive relationship, however the problem is that she is 5 years younger and doesn't want to move our relationship any further for what could be another 2-3 years. We have already been together for a year and a half and I want to get a house, get married and then maybe kids in the next 3-4 years, her plan is more like 8 years for all that.
On top of that however, she has been acting irresponsibly consistently throughout the entire coronavirus pandemic which has really made me see her differently. Socialising with multiple people from 2 other houses daily, going out in groups bigger than 2, going out multiple times a day. She has done all of this as a way to keep her entertained and has refused to move back home as she would be too bored with just 3 people in a house, rather than 6+. All while not taking into account that I am living on my own and she could have come to keep me company through this time.
I need to know if I'm overreacting over all of these things or not? Is the fact I'm on my own making me overthink and blow things out proportion? I apologies again for the length of the post but at a time when I am unable to express these feelings to anyone, this seemed like my only outlet for objective advice.
Thank You.