In September, I cautiously decided to start seeing the father of my daughter's best friend. It's been really great, and has helped me work through a lot of emotional stuff including heavy grief.
After 6 months, thinking about next steps, I'm conflicted. On one hand, I want to start planning to behave more like a couple and integrate our lives a bit…introduce him to friends, tell family members about my relationship, talk to the girls about us being more than just friends.
However, I know I'm not ready for that. There are some things I would need to see changing in his life first for me to be comfortable. Maybe my resistance comes from a more complicated emotional place, but whether that's the case or not, I know it will take me a while to be okay progressing.The problem is, not progressing also feels weird? Like, isn't slow consistent progression the backbone of a healthy relationship? I've never known anything else. Can you just stay status quo for months on end? Has anyone had success with that? Or is this the sign that the romantic relationship has run it's course and we need to step back to just friends/parents?
**Backstory: the girls have been best friends for 5 years. About 2 years ago, we started being around each other sometimes once I became a single parent too. My late husband used to do more of the kids parties, activities etc. We mutually realized and acknowledged strong feelings a year ago, but I was fully against the idea of exploring it and took space from him.
When school started again, I accepted that it was something that would be good for me to explore, and it has been. He's really good for me, and it's been so much fun for both me and my daughter to spend time with them together, which happens about once a month.
Edited: formatting