Do Women Have a Big Problem With All Unemployed Men?

[Moviefan2k4]

I'm not asking this to verify my failures in life, or stroke my own ego - I seriously want to know the truth about this and why, because its confused and frustrated me for years.

My beloved mother (RIP) used to tell me all the time, "Women don't like things that don't work, and that includes men." At first, I brushed this idea off, since I was a kid when she started saying it and I didn't fully grasp her point. But as I grew up, and repeatedly failed to both have a job and attract a woman, I began to live in very real terror that my Mom was right, and I'd always be alone.

Now, to better understand this, I need to clarify some things. There's two main reasons I am not currently employed. The first is that I have epilepsy, and I take medicine every day so I don't suffer debilitating seizures. As a result, I've been on government assistance since 2002, but the Feds have told me that if I start working, any money I earn significantly lessens my benefits. The second reason is that I also was born with a form of autism known as Asperger's Syndrome, though I wasn't actually diagnosed until I was 33 years old. But the way my doctor explained it at the time, the condition is hardwired into the brain, meaning there is no cure. It has many different symptoms and no two people are alike, but there are common factors. One is having an extensive vocabulary, which I definitely possess. Another is being extremely focused on areas of special interest, almost to the point of obsession; guilty here as well. Yet another is an inability to comprehend many non-verbal means of communication, such as facial expressions or different shifts in vocal tone. To compensate, I often gesture when I speak, similar to Doc Brown in Back to the Future. Finally, I also tend to take many remarks from people very literally, struggling at times with various speech forms like subtle sarcasm or crass humor (I always know the latter bothers me, but can't often explain why).

How does all of this apply? Well, my Mom was a workaholic herself, who constantly lived in fear of being poor. To the best of my knowledge, she'd only had three committed relationships in her lifetime. The first was to the brother of her father's second wife; his name was Chris. I don't know how long they were together, but she cared about him a great deal. He died from an epileptic seizure at an early age, which must have traumatized her. So when I began suffering from the same thing, it probably triggered a new form of emotional hell for her. Her second relationship was with my Dad, but she was under the impression she was barren so they didn't bother using protection. When she told him she was pregnant, he felt manipulated and left; I didn't meet him until I was 12, and he passed from Alzheimer's in 2021. Mom's last attempt at happiness actually resulted in marriage, but everyone in the family warned her not to go through with it. After about two years, they had my sister Lauren...but shortly after he decided their union was a mistake and also left. So there my mother was, aged 24 with two kids and no real support to speak of. Its no surprise why she spent the rest of her life chasing the almighty dollar, but due to my own differences I often failed to understand any of it. Because of that, she started thinking I was purposely lazy during my teens, and no matter how I tried to reassure her I was not she didn't believe me. Once I got diagnosed with autism and explained some of the effects, she seemed to regret all the fights we had, but we didn't have enough time to heal from those wounds completely. She'd become sick with various illnesses when I reached my late 20s, and was gone before my 35th birthday.

So, that's enough of my story for now - what's your variety of stances on this, ladies? Was my Mom right? Am I crazy, or just a special case? I've only had one relationship myself, and it ended horribly in 2006 (and no, unemployment was not the main contributing factor).