coming out Advice.

[shykid25]

So I believe I'm ready to tell my parents more my mom than my dad. But I have a good relationship with both of them, so they both deserve to know.
Idk how to tell them. They are pretty much the last ones I need to tell. Plus I have a strong feeling that my mom knows. I just don't know how to go about coming out to them. It still scared me to tell them, just fear that I'll get kicked out or disowned or idk. I feel ready but still scared.

Any advice on what I could/should do?

[Darius]

How old are you? If you are really concerned about being kicked out and are not financially able to support yourself, now might not be the right time, no matter how you feel. Whatcha think?

[MikeW]

Any advice on what I could/should do?

[MENTION=21957]Darius[/MENTION] has a good point. If you're not close to 100% sure your parents won't kick you out of the house, NOW might not be the time to come out to them. If you're just *afraid* but know deep down that that is very unlikely, then it doesn't really matter when you tell them… so long as YOU feel ready. Yeah, it is scary, for sure, because it feels like you are risking their love. Well, but are you? What kind of people are they? Do the love you… can they accept you being "different" from them?

It's always hard to know how to support someone. We want to be helpful but how to help? Best I can say is really think about what you know about your parents. It seems to me from what you've said that chances are, whatever their initial reaction may be, they will get used to it and everything will be fine. It's just that scary like a roller coaster feeling, you know? But then once you get through it you wonder what all that worry was about. So…. take your time… pick the right opportunity, take deep breath and say, "Mom, Dad, I have something I'm needing to tell you…and I'm hoping you don't totally FREAK OUT on me!" Or something like that.

[Elijoan]

Like MikeW said, you should work with what you know about your parents. I think telling one at a time is best, probably starting with your mother. Don't make it a big production. Just find a time when it would make sense to be having a personal discussion, when there aren't distractions, when they aren't busy dealing with something else. (Some people try to make it a special event, but I think the casual approach is better because the point is that it's a perfectly normal thing to be.)

My father and I were quite close, and I just brought it up one day when we were alone. I was fairly certain he'd be okay with it and my mother wouldn't. He said, "I like girls too!" He also told me my mother had read my mail and already knew (which, I realized, had given him time to think about his response). We talked about how to deal with her. She never really got over it, not until I started dating men much later. I still don't talk to her about anything personal, never told her I'm still interested in women (but I did tell my father).