For the past six months, Malikah, a single mom from New York, has been dating a man who she thinks is amazing. The only problem? He hasn't show any interest in bonding with her son.
Malikah asks for advice during a two-part special of "Oprah's Lifeclass" filled with an audience full of single moms. She clarifies that her boyfriend isn't malicious towards her son. "He treats him like a colleague," she says in the above video.
Actress Nia Long, who is also single mother, says she can relate. When she introduced her then 9-year-old son to her partner, former NBA player Ime Udoka, she noticed the same thing. "But what I've learned to do is remove myself from trying to define what their relationship is and looks like," Nia says. "Men have a very different way of communicating."
Nia says her advice is not to micromanage. "Give them time and just make sure that you're comfortable with whatever they come up with," she says.
"Oprah's Lifeclass" airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.