I'm honestly not ok with our schedule. Prior to COVID, I spent 3 nights a week at the gym. I had 2 of those nights purely to myself but was expected to schedule one gym session around dinner with his family. In addition to that, we were expected at dinner 2 other nights of the week.

Spending time as a couple has been something I've also brought up to him. His response is that since we're both at dinner, we're still spending time together. In regards to being a checkmark, I've honestly had the same thoughts. One time we were going out to dinner with his family and I was having bad cramps from my period, which I communicated to him. His response was "can't you just act like you feel ok so no one thinks anything is wrong?" I couldn't believe that his priority was to make sure his family had the right image and completely ignore how i was feeling.

We've had this schedule for almost the entirety of our dating, and during that time I've sat out of 3 total dinners. Following each of those times, at least one family member would comment on how they had specifically made a dish for me and was sad I wasn't there to enjoy it. Each time, the dish mentioned was something totally random to me. I never expressed any sort of preference for this dishes so to me, it just felt like a guilt trip for not showing.