I do not like talking about my personal life.

I am an extremely private person.

When I was younger, I was not extremely private - and in the end, people often extracted information about my life, and used it against me or even worse used it to gossip about me.

I am from an African background and boy do they like to gossip! Aunties (not blood aunties, just family friends) will come to my face and ask me what I am studying, where I work, when I am getting married, what my family is up to etc - and I know for sure that they are only asking this because they want to compare their lives to mine or compare their own children's progress to my progress.

Or even if they are not, why do they feel so entitled to get information about my life. My parents are NEVER the type to go to someone else child and ask their child what their child is doing with their personal life, so why should someone come to me and my siblings?

I don't mind so much if the person is my age, but when it is someone old enough to be my mother it makes me feel uncomfortable.

A woman asked me the other day "where do I work" so I asked her "where do your children work" and she told me, and then still asked me where I work and I said "don't worry about it"

Me personally, it is not that I am ashamed about my life - it is just that I do not want people knowing my person life as I do not want people to know my whole business, and people often use this information against your or to gossip about you or to compare their lives to yours.

I only talk about my private life with close friends/family, I hate it when I speak to someone I have to divulge information about my personal life - why can't we just talk about general things such as the weather, celebrities, hobbies, food?

Am I being too sensitive? How much do you share?