'My parents refuse to accept that I'm engaged as I'm the one that proposed'

A woman who proposed to her fiancé has sought advice after her parents refused to recognise their engagement, continuing to refer to her husband-to-be as her ‘boyfriend’

Given that we’re now in the year 2022, you’d like to think that people would be much more accepting when it comes to how a happy couple gets engaged.

While in heterosexual relationships, it’s still seen as the norm for a man to get down on bended knee, very few people would judge a woman for taking the initiative and popping the question for herself.

Every marriage is different and so it should be a given that all will inevitably begin in many different and very personal ways.

However, one bride-to-be has been left battling some very old-fashioned viewpoints on this front, with her own parents point-blank refusing to acknowledge her upcoming nuptials.

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Taking to Reddit’s advice forum, Reddit user u/strawberryzoup revealed that her parents have taken issue with the fact that she was the one to propose to her now future husband and has blasted them as ‘sexist’.

The fed-up woman, who proposed to her husband back in September, explained how her mother had at first been ‘very excited’ when her brother – who tied the knot earlier this year – announced his engagement.

The initially delighted mother was left ‘really hurt’ after her daughter-in-law chose not to include her in anything at all, rejecting her enthusiastic attempts to get involved in the planning process.

The woman now wants her mother to get equally thrilled about her wedding and longs for her to put together a Pinterest board just as she’d previously tried to do for her dismissive daughter-in-law.

However, this ideal outcome is currently far from the case.

The poster’s father also isn’t showing much enthusiasm ahead of the big day and has even told her fiancé that he won’t approve of it unless he proposes now effectively “forcing him to propose for approval”.

The disappointed lovebird wrote: “This is not as happy as I wanted it to be. In fact, they have been calling him my boyfriend still and they’re shocked that we’re going to look at a venue together on Sunday. They’re now upset because my sister in law doesn’t want them to be a part of the baby shower either and that my SIL asked only me to plan it.

“This seems simple to me. Just be excited for my wedding, because I want the help they are so desperate to give my brother and his wife when they don’t want it”.

Reddit users have responded sympathetically to the difficult situation, offering differing pearls of wisdom as to what this disheartened woman should do next.

One person advised the bride to ‘educate them’, explaining: “how they’re not seeing you as equal to a man”.

While another urged her to ‘put your big girl panties on’ remarking: “You’re no longer the child that needs to be scolded”.

A third commenter cautioned that it was “critically important that your fiancé NOT bow to the pressure to stage a fake proposal or ask for approval”, warning, “if he knuckles under, it’ll be the first of dozens of decisions and actions that your parents will attempt to dictate and second-guess in years to come”.

What do you think the woman should do? Let us know in the comments below.