Dear lunaKM,

I would like some advice on how to tell my family and my children who are teenagers that I am committing myself to my Dom.  I have been a single Mother for many years and live in a very rural area.  My Dom and I have been in a long distance relationship for 4 yrs and we meet a few times a year.  They have never met him and I don't know how to make them understand how I feel about him. --Ready to Tell

Dear Ready to Tell,

I understand that you must be bubbling with excitement to have your Dominant as a permanent part of your life and want to shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone who will listen. I'd suggest you take a deep breath and rethink this for a moment. I'm certain that your family and your children do not need to know the specifics of your relationship. They don't even need to know that you are submissive and he is Dominant. It may just cause you more grief and more questions to answer.

What you can tell them is that you love someone and want to be with them. You can tell them how long you've been dating, you can introduce them to him as your date, your partner, your boyfriend, whatever. Treat him like he's a vanilla boyfriend - how would you introduce the idea of him to your family.

The reason I say you don't have to bring in the whole power exchange stuff is that they don't really need to know, they won't be exposed to the full brunt of it and I'd hope that most of what you do will be disguised in front of family or non-existent.

This site has covered similar questions previously that might also help you, even if I probably sound like a parrot and repeat myself a lot. Please take a look at them and consider how you will present your boyfriend, who is also your Dominant, to family and friends.