Search Results: wasting my life

I love whales. They're magnificent and beautiful and amazing. My summer vacation is almost over and the hell that is my academic life will resume in a few weeks. Most of my friends have traipsed around the world but I'm both too broke and not clever enough to manage such trips wisely. I just want to see whales.

My parents like whales too so they want to join me on this trip which just involves driving a few states away, sleeping overnight, getting on a boat, seeing the whales, and going home. I just want my nuclear family to come. My mom has been hinting that it would be nice if I invited my 16 year old cousin along. She's hinted on 6 different occasions and I've said no 6 times.

My cousin isn't a bad kid, I just don't want to deal. My parents fight a lot publicly and I don't want her there to see that and report it back to her family. She also makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. She comments on my clothes and body freely and it annoys me. Her family is a lot wealthier and she just assumes we don't have a budget when we do. For example, my family of four went to a restaurant and spent 250$ there, it was a special occasion. Her family of four went to the same restaurant and spent 400$ there. I know if we take her, more money will be dropped unnecessarily.

My cousin's mom has pleaded with my mom to take her kid if we go on any short trips because she's wasting away at home. Though in reality, she's having a normal summer with her friends. She's offered to pay too, but my parents would never take that money.

Is it wrong of me to refuse to bring her on this trip? Is it petty?

I am cent percent serious about finding my life partner and I am not interested in playing games like dating and such... I would befriend a person with whom I had many things in common, and if I start to feel something more for him, I would show it through actions and words, I don't believe in wasting someone's as well as my time in dating. I believe that I should only be in a relationship with someone if I feel deep love and willingness to be with them, and that relationship has to lead to marriage. Of course, I am a very picky person...