Dear Steve,
I've been with my boyfriend for five years now. We were a long-distance relationship for some time and he finally moved in with me ... and my mom. We're only 22 so we're just a couple of broke college kids.
Anyhow, my mom and my boyfriend constantly fight. He believes that she belittles him and his opinions. He also inserts himself in our conversations, thinking he's defending me against my mother. It doesn't help.
My mother takes it as an attack and starts to cut into him and talk about how he has no credibility because he hasn't lived life. It becomes overwhelming, being in a cramped apartment with the two of them always fighting. I feel lost in the middle especially because whenever he is not around, she will tell me he isn't the one. It's to the point where I don't like being left alone with her.
At this point I don't know what to do. The disrespect goes both ways, and I believe that my mother is acting out because she has no boyfriend or close friends to occupy her time, and so she obsesses on my relationship. I think my fights with my boyfriend are pretty normal.
I love them both, but at this point I just want to leave and not be around either of them. I don't want to be single; I just want them to stop. What should I do?