AFFECTIONATE BF VS. STRICT PARENTS

Dear Jellybean,

I have been dating my boyfriend for about 4 months. He is a grade ahead of me and we go to the same rather small high school (maybe 400 students total). He has been to my house and I to his. My parents never had any problems with it. But my mum works as a teacher at my school. My bf is almost what you would call clingy but it doesn't bother me. He likes to hold my hand and sit in my chair at lunch. my mum is a very well liked teacher so her students tell her everything and they started telling her stories about my bf and i. Now my parents are extremely mad because they think its bringing the family name a bad reputation. I dont think that im doing anything wrong but is there anything i can do to like maybe tone things down at school without freaking my bf out or something? My parents can get really strict and i dont want them to hate him or anything.

Thank you,
Worried

Dear Worried,

It's great that you want to respect your parents' values, and also take care not to freak out your boyfriend. You sound like a pretty thoughtful person.

Here's my suggestion for you. Tell your boyfriend (if he doesn't know already) that your parents are very strict, and that stories about you and he are starting to get back to your mom. Then tell him exactly what you told me - that you don't think you two are doing anything wrong, but that to prevent trouble at home, and to make sure your parents continue to like your boyfriend, you'd like to tone things down at school.

As long as your boyfriend knows this is about you trying to stay in your parents' good books, and not about you feeling less love for him, I'm sure he'll go along. Just save the displays of affection for when you're off school grounds, and you should be made in the shade.