 (Nick Galifianakis for The Post) | Carolyn Hax is away. The following is from Dec. 9, 2007. Hi, Carolyn: Sometimes when we are out in a group or with my girlfriend's close-knit family, I feel like my girlfriend acts fake. Attention-greedy, goofy, childish. As the months have passed and the other parts of "us" have grown and progressed, this thing has remained an issue. I'm sort of famously neurotic and am struggling to not react so badly to this. We go out, she does this act, I get so annoyed. She's like a different person when we are alone! I hate to hurt her feelings, and otherwise we are very in love. She gets very defensive and takes it as an attack on her character, says I don't fully "accept her." I don't want her to change per se, but it drives me nuts. And frankly, it makes me less attracted to her to see her act like a 12-year-old with our friends. I want this to work with her; how do I get past this? How do I talk to her about this? She just becomes angry and says I am trying to control her. We've been talking engagement, and I want to figure this out before we move forward. Any ideas? — Annoyed |
