Vicious Titas and Relationships They Wish You Have

I was eating my cravings at lunchtime when I saw an office girl joined a group of older females also dining in. It didn't shock me when I overheard the two questions aged women never fail to ask their young counterparts:

"Are you married?" (I guess she said no because...)
"But you do a have a boyfriend, right?"

(Cue me rolling eyes and stripping the flesh off a rib bone)

I had a similar encounter sometime ago which I love recalling to friends because my aunt was just too brash:

(*Well obviously this happened in Filipino so let me translate it for everyone)

Tita: Joy lose some weight! How can you have a boyfriend with that?
Me: (shocked at how she said it at our house, eating the food we prepared)
Cousin: (probably embarrased too, even the neighbors might have heard with that decibel) She does, haven't you seen her Facebook?
Me: (smiles, phew, it was over...)
Tita: (paused but was able to recover) Why are you not married yet?!! You're getting old!
Me: (there is no winning this huh)

I don't know why our Aunts think that it's OK asking such personal questions. What is it? Revenge, for being that naive girl once and to return the favor they do this with their nieces? What's up with being single in their eyes? Will they eventually tell their kids don't be like your cousin who is old without a family of their own? It's as if being a matandang dalaga (old maid) is such a big deal you might be dying of a certain disease and they'd still think it's a harsher position for being unmarried. Never mind that you are successful on your own right.

Personally I'm in no hurry, but the pressure of settling down are hounding my thoughts multiple times a day especially that I'm turning 30 this year. It's somewhat consuming my free time to think that every time I do it I end up weakened and stressed more than I am at the office. I have stopped researching too because I thought that since we don't have a date yet, might as well stop my anxious evenings. But then I get the "when" question again and I'm back to being miserable on not being able to get married ASAP as they would have wanted. I know it is possible on a very minimum budget but pardon me (us) for saving up for a memorable evening thank you very much. I want to cry joyful tears of how beautiful it was rather than cry on how it wasn't in my vision to be like. I'm not even pregnant to hastily plan a wedding that involves a judge and a restaurant that can cater to a few people I HAVE to invite. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but we're not at that verge of "needing to get married before I swell". I know it can wait even for a while. Maybe I can even lose weight too. What I plan now is to just ask them to sponsor us a 6 figure venue if they ever attempt to ask me again. I'm hoping that will keep their mouth shut.

Later that night, I actually paid for the family dinner, where there's like double of them compared to my immediate family members. The least she could have done would have shouldered some eh?