How do you tell someone who means the world to you that you don't want to spend an entire day with them?
It's not exactly an entire day.
You're off two days a week, work 8+ hour shifts with varying times. You never know when you're going to be off because your schedule changes almost by the hour.
Spending time with your significant other is the best thing in the world, your favourite thing but it's only for a short amount of time each day.
You and your SO's schedules are 100% opposite; it's a struggle to stay awake after work in the evening when they're just starting to wake up. They go to sleep when you're waking up to go to work.
You want to spend your off days doing things you want to; them, spending time with them and whatever else.
Take one of those days and dedicate it to housework, resting before going back to work the next day and running errands. You don't get weekends off, ever.
Take your other off day, spend it with your family besides your SO (with your family AND your SO if possibly but not always). Imagine only spending a few hours a day with your SO and wanting to spend at least half a day with them doing literally everything or nothing, whatever suits you.
Would you want to spend only half a day or a whole day or most of a day?
Your family wants to take you for the whole day, every time you're available. You love them, you miss them and want to spend time with them. But you also miss your SO even though you live with them.
Say your SO has the same issue; they want to spend their day with you, even if it's just thing YouTube all day together. Or working on their hobby. Or just sleeping the whole day away together. They can't go out like you can, anxiety restricts them but they're working through it trying. Baby steps, babe, baby steps.
Do you tell your family you don't mind doing something for a small part of the day or not at all?
What if you planned a small outing and they added to it?
How do you tell your family you love them but they can't keep trying to pull you back to your childhood?
