I am finding that I have a problem socializing with my parents around. I just cant do it very well and I dont quite know why, its like I have a mental block in my head. But when my parents aren't their, I am ok at socializing. For instance, my mom had a gathering where she invited her friends and some family, I socialized a little but I started retreating to my room a lot. But this past thanksgiving, I went to my friends relatives house because I was far away from home. While I wasn't terribly social, my social skills were better. I remember actually being able to hold conversations with the people their and keep them going, make sufficient eye contact, etc. In the social gathering my mom just had, some people talked to me but often times I allowed the conversation to drop more easily and I wasn't making eye contact very well. Its like I didn't know how to talk to them. Im thinking, I can do better then this?
During this time of year, we tend to see relatives a lot. For some reason, I just don't socialize with them very well either, and of course my parents are there too. I'm theorizing this is cause, for so many years, I was very quiet and never socializing at all. But when I finally learned to socialize was mostly in college, my parents are not around cause I go to college out of state. So with my parents around, I retreat back to that antisocial kid in me. Its hard to utilize my current social abilities in old enviorenment's. One of the problems is that my mom gets frustrated with my lack of sociability and unfriendliness that she sees in me. And she is constantly like, "I hope you don't act this way around your friends." Shes never seen how far Ive actually come socially since highschool.