Hi I’m feeling pretty devastated right now. My boyfriend of 6 months broke up with me yesterday. I initially brought it to his attention that I wanted to improve our communication because we were only seeing each other once every 2-3 weeks and not communicating much throughout the day. I did not want to break up, I just wanted to see how we could compromise.  He works full time and I am still in University. He said he would not be able to meet my needs because his job has long hours and now he will be working even more due to tax season.  I said I was willing to try but he said nothing would change.  He then brought up his parents and how they still don’t approve of us dating.  We are both South-Asian and have strict parents who insist we marry within our religion and ethnicity. The funny thing is we are from the same place, same religion, same caste, yet his mom still wants him to break up with me.  She wants to find him a girl that she knows is from a good family.  I told him early in that my dad has a drinking problem and he knows my family is low income. His family however is rich. At first he told me this was not a problem and he was fine with both. Once his parents found out we were dating (unplanned) he said his mom would not approve of my dad’s drinking.  He also told me she mentioned a story of how his cousin married a girl who stole his money and divorced him. His brother is dating a muslim girl (we are hindu) and his mother is extremely disapproving of it. He said, to his mom, our situation is just as bad but I don’t understand how. His brother is staying with his muslim girlfriend but my ex said he would not disrespect his mother the way his brother did.  But I don’t understand the issue since we are the same religion. I asked him if he was willing to try to work on our relationship but he seemed sure we should break up. He also said he didn’t want to be in a relationship with someone who felt like he was neglecting them. I just can’t believe we broke up over such a dumb reason. I can’t believe he has no backbone to his mother and would leave me just to satisfy her. He said he was sorry for hurting me and hopes I find someone who can give me everything I want. He never mentioned losing feelings for me but I don’t see how he could drop our relationship just like that, unless he did lose feelings. I know long term this is for the best because my needs were obviously not being met in that relationship, but it just hurts knowing our relationship meant so little to him. Any insight on a similar situation or anything would be appreciated.