I am so upset and I don't know what to do. I have been with my boyfriend for over a year now and things between us are really serious, I feel like he is my SO. He is always there for me, he gives me emotional support, he always listen to me and he makes me happy like nobody else. He is my best friend. When I went back to Italy last summer my mother met him and she told me that she likes him but she doesn't want me to marry him because she is not Nigerian (I am Nigerian), but he is from another country. I told her that we are saving up to move together next year, once I finish my studies in the U.K and she started screaming on the phone and saying that I am bringing disgrace to our family and that I shouldn't move back to Italy, because no one of my parents friends/relatives lives there anymore. I am planning to move back to Italy and live with my boyfriend, because I know he is the one and I love Italy and I miss it so much. My parents do not approve my relationship, they keep insulting him, my father says he is going to kill him and they both said that they will never come to our wedding one day, because is a disgrace that I am marring somebody from another country. This situation kills me, I don't want to break up with my boyfriend and I will not do it for my parents, but all this is such a big drama. If I choose my boyfriend I am going to lose my parents, but if I choose my parents and I am going to lose my boyfriend (because I can't stay with him). In the second case, I will probably never speak to my parents again, because they have always chosed for me in the past and I always agreed, but for once in life I am sure of something and it seems like I can't live in peace or be happy, because their opinions come fist. I really don't know how to handle this situation. I don't know why my mother behaves this way, my father is Nigerian and since when I was young he always abused my mother, me and my siblings, physically and phycologically. No one of my relatives is a good husband and neither are my parents friends, but my parents would prefer me to be in an abusive relationship with somebody they like or somebody they have chosed than to stay with my boyfriend.

Did this ever happen to any of you?

How did you handle it?

I apologise for any grammar error, I am still trying to learn English.