u/nightmarish_Kat

I would love to know everything before I get my first mantis. I've always loved them. I really want an Orchid Mantis.😍 I want to know what would be the best enclosure (budget friendly)? The best kind of food? Where to get everything? Best way to care for them? 🤔 Anything you can think of. Tips for bonding. 💕 I learn and understand things better when someone explains it and I can ask follow up questions. Pictures also help. Picture of the mantis I saw today will be in the comments.

Relevant information:

I 36F and my 37M fiance have been together going on 5 years in September. We aren't moving in with each other until we get married. He is also in the military.

My brother 37M and his wife 34F have been together for 2 years. Her and her kids moved in with him after only dating for 3 weeks. I love my sister in law. She's really sweet and she's good to my brother and niece.

My mom 57F and (step) Dad 60M have been together for over 10 years. They were together for 5 years before my dad popped the question. They didn't move in with each other until they were married.

In December 2024 I told my mom that my fiance (we will call him Matt) and I were planning on getting married in May or June 2025. He has put in for leave. For now we were just going to go to the courthouse and we are going to do a celebration later. She just said ok and asked about the ring. I told her that he wants to propose the proper way and make it all romantic. He is a Virgo so everything has to be perfect. 😉. She just said humm.

2 or so weeks later... My brother (we will call Todd) and his then girlfriend (we will call Amy) had only been together for 4 months at this point. They come in with a paper from the courthouse. It was an application for a marriage license. My mom gets all excited and starts hugging them and asked them if they set a date. They said they hadn't yet. My brother hadn't even proposed or gotten her a ring.

In my state you have to be engaged for a year and take x amount of hours of couples therapy before getting married.

That Christmas Todd gets Amy a ring and proposes on Christmas day. My mom was going around and telling literally everyone about them getting married. Even strangers. Amy was the only one showing interest in my relationship. She helped me pick out a dress and wanted to wait until I set my date before setting hers.

Matt got leave at the end of June. We were looking at the 27th. I told my mom and again she just said ok. Unfortunately because of the war he couldn't take his leave. I was clearly upset. Before I told my mom Matt didn't get leave, she tells me that she took Amy to the courthouse to set their date for June 27th. I was speechless.

I asked Amy who decided the date she said they did. Whenever I heard my mom on the phone with Todd or Amy she was always pushing them to set a date. This is only one example. So am I overreacting or does my mom not take my relationship seriously or even respect it?