1. They’re strict.

When you have strict parents, they don’t give you the freedom or the support you need when you’re dating someone. They’re always asking you if it’s serious, if it’s going somewhere and they give you a hard time about everything if they don’t approve of the person you’re dating.

2. They don’t have a good relationship with each other.

They could be divorced, separated or just bickering all the time, but when you grow up with parents who weren’t very loving to each other, you either ask for too much love which ends up pushing your partner away or you settle for unhealthy relationships because that’s what you know.

3. They don’t look at the bigger picture.

If you’re dating someone new, they always spot the flaws or the faults in them, they look at the shallow things instead of the big things and in a way they ruin it for you because they convince you that they’re not good for you right from the start.

4. They don’t really understand you.

They may want the best for you but they don’t really understand what that is or what makes you happy. Someone may be everything they need ‘on paper’ but they’re not compatible with you and they don’t make you happy. When your parents don’t understand you, they’ll never understand or approve of your choices.

5. They are pessimistic about love.

They don’t believe in it, they think it doesn’t exist, they think it all fades away or maybe they stopped believing in romance, they feed you negative messages about relationships and it becomes difficult for you to get these messages out of your head when you’re dating someone.

6. They don’t want you to date outside of a certain ‘type.’

They make you fear other nationalities or cultures and they tell you that you need to stick to a certain type to be happy because that’s what they know or what they were taught but this really limits your options and makes you stuck with a type that might not be the best for you.

7. They’re too overprotective.

As soon as they know you’re dating someone, they show up everywhere you go or call you fifty times a day or they try to spy on you to make sure you’re not doing anything crazy. In other words, they make you hate the day you told them that you’re talking to someone.

8. They don’t make an effort with the person you’re dating.

When you introduce them to the person you’re dating, they don’t try to get to know them or make them feel welcome, they could actually do the exact opposite or try to push them away just because they don’t think you should be dating them.

9. They bring up your past.

They tell you that you’re making the same mistake again or the person you’re dating is the same as your ex and it won’t work out. They hold your past against you and sabotage your new relationships.

10. They think you’re better off single.

They tell you that you’re better off this way because relationships are risky and complicated and there is no such thing as love. They don’t push you to take more risks with love or try to date different people. They think it’s safer for you to stay away from relationships because there’s a possibility they could go wrong and leave you heartbroken.