My parents raised me, the house doesn't have my name on it, and I'm not even asking for an exorbitant bride price, so you should count yourself lucky.

(From a reader submission, images in this article are from the internet)

My parents raised me all these years, your house doesn't have my name on it, and I'm not even asking you for an exorbitant bride price, so you should count yourself lucky.

Now my boyfriend and I have reached the point of discussing marriage, but because of some specific issues we've had disagreements, and the two sides can't reach an agreement. Right now we're at a standstill. He thinks he's right, and I think I haven't done anything wrong either. Why don't you all help us take a look and see who's actually in the wrong here and doesn't know how to be considerate of the other person.

That's right, my family is poor, and I've always admitted that. My parents were just ordinary workers, and my mother is frail and sickly, needing long-term medication. I also have a younger brother who is currently in university, so the family burden is very heavy. There's no way around it, I couldn't choose my family of origin. But I myself am quite driven. I worked my way through university, and the company I later joined is quite good, with a high and fairly stable salary. Plus I'm beautiful and tall. Other than my family not being well-off, I'm not inferior to my boyfriend in any other way.

Actually, by the normal mate-selection standards of an ordinary white-collar woman, my boyfriend's family background is also average. He's just an ordinary civil servant at a public institution. It sounds nice, but his salary and benefits combined aren't even as high as mine. Yet his mother just thinks my family has no money and comes with burdens, and she has never shown me anything but dissatisfaction and disdain. Back then I told my boyfriend: "Your mother doesn't seem to like me. Are you confident you can persuade her? I don't want to have to face your mother's cold stares all the time after we get married." He said no problem, that his mother is cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and that once you get to know her she becomes easier to deal with. At the time I was half doubtful, half believing. Of course his mother is like that with her own son, but with me she seemed to only ever have a look of permanent contempt.

Later, perhaps because she saw her son was determined to choose me, my mother-in-law finally agreed to accept me, and at the time we were all very happy. When we were discussing marriage, his mother bought a new house, and using that as a reason, she said she wouldn't give any bride price money. I was unhappy inside, feeling that his mother had played this move very cleverly. The house was bought before marriage, so it counts as my boyfriend's premarital property. Since the house doesn't have my name on it, it naturally isn't property under my name. Yet she only paid a down payment, and after marriage I'd still have to help pay the mortgage. So I made it clear to him: "My parents raised me all these years, your house doesn't have my name on it, and I'm not even asking you for an exorbitant bride price, so you should count yourself lucky. Therefore I don't plan to bring a dowry. Anyway, our family's situation doesn't really allow for it."

But when my boyfriend found out, he was very unhappy. He thinks that by preparing a house he has already solved the biggest problem. But I feel that no matter how you calculate it, I'm the one at a disadvantage, and it's impossible for me to make any more concessions. The problem is my boyfriend doesn't think so. He says I'm stingy and just want to marry in with only myself and enjoy ready-made blessings. Everyone, tell us, which of us is right and which of us is wrong, and what should we do next?