You need not choose because either of the two is very important. Love has grown and started within the family. A family is not called family when there's no love at all. Applying love outside the family is another story. There are lot of things to consider. But you have your own decisions and if you think, you are doing the right thing then so be it. Maybe there's just a little misunderstanding between your family and your recent guy. You may need to facilitate an open forum for both party and talk it out as one whole family. You've just divorced from a 3 year marriage so it's just normal for you parents to worry things about you so you have to let them know and ask for their advice as well. Your thoughts, opinions and mainly your concerns. Before anything gets deeper and complicated, try to have a family counseling.

I have had previous relationships before my marriage, but was too young to really understand the dynamics of love and compromise, my parents had never approved of any of them and I had backed out not wanting to hurt them. Now, at thirty and having been through a divorce I feel I am more matured and independant and am not simply blinded by emotions with my boyfreind as my parents think I am. I am well aware of the sacrifices and financial stress I will have to face as he does have responsibilities. But I also know I want a career and want a partnership not a  husband who will 'take care of me' materialistically. I want us to build a life together, where we will support and take care of each other each other and be sucessfull as a couple. iIknow with my support he will do well as will I with his, we are wonderfully compatible, want the same things in life and are the best of friends, we share our every thought and have never really had any personalty conflitcs or arguments. He makes me incredibly happy and has been supportive of all my choices, he even said that if it makes my life easier to let him go as he knows how sad and conflicted I am because of my family that he will accept it even though he will always love me and will always be there for me. I even tried breaking up, but it has been impossible for me to let him go, I had gone into severe depression and know I will never ever get over him. I have tried to make my family understand, their negativity has caused terrible confusion on my part. I began with accepting him as a father of two but later started having severe issues with his kids and ex, which I think is closely linked to really trying to find an excuse to let him go as well as the fact that i feel jealous as I am far away and not really a physical part of his life even though we are always on the phone or skype every chance we get. Now, I constantly stress about what society will think, what my parents may have to go through etc and its driving me crazy.  I feel like the worries my parents have that I will not be able to deal with the finacial and other resposibilties is taking away my initial streght and confidence I had in my relationship. That the saying 'one can never be happy in marriage by going against hurting on'es parents' is somehow coming true. But I also know I simply cannot imagine my life without him,  and don't want to look for a 'suitable' partner as I will always love my boyfriend no matter what. I know that most of the issues I have with him being a Dad will go away once we are sharing our lives together. Am I blinded by love and wrond for wanting to be with him at the expense of my family's peace of mind and 'social standing'?