Hey reddit I [24M] am a virgin and have never been in a serious relationship. The reasons for those are complicated, but it mostly boils down to things just never working out between me and women that I've been interested in over the years. It's become increasingly difficult in recent years to cope with the fact that I'm a virgin and never had a girlfriend, and I'm starting to worry about how it's going to impact my romantic life in the future. My family is aware of my struggles with my romantic life and I believe they have my best interest at heart.

Yesterday I went with my parents to visit my brother and meet his girlfriend for the first time. Before we arrived there we naturally we talked about my romantic life. I explained that a couple of weeks ago I met a girl online (25F, let's call her K) and that we hit it off well and talked on snapchat for a few days. I told them that although I liked her and we had decent convos, I cut things off with her. K was a good woman, but there were too many concerns I had about K. My main concern was that K already had a daughter with a deadbeat who wasn't involved in the daughter's life. She was a full time parent while also working full time and going to college full time, and did not have a car or her own place. She also was very overweight and unfortunately for some reason I'm only attracted to skinny or medium built girls. I explained this to my parents and they berated me for rejecting her. My dad said that I should have just given her a chance and see if we could make it work. He also said that at my age, lots of women are already going to have kids and be overweight and it's just a reality that I have to deal with. I tried to explain that she's not really what I'm looking for (mainly cause of her having a kid), but they made it seem like I am setting my standards too high and need to be more realistic. So I am trying to determine if my standards are actually too high.

Just for context I'd say my positives are I have full time job, my own apartment and car, no kids, skinny, am financially secure, decent sense of humor, intelligent, mature, don't smoke/vape, and I have started to get hobbies outside of just watching TV/TikTok (I have started going to salsa dancing classes, playing chess, and started learning how to cook, which are things women find attractive and I enjoy). My negatives are I am short (5'7"), bald, make mediocre money (47K/year), I live a somewhat basic life (meaning I'm not travelling/going out 24/7), I'm socially awkward, a virgin, and have anxiety and have had episodes of depression.

I have told myself and my family that I refuse to settle. For me this means a few things. First, I'm not going to be with someone that I don't find attractive. My family has called me shallow since I don't go for bigger girls, but when I remind them that lots of girls won't give me a chance since I'm short (which I have zero control over), they have nothing to say about that. Besides for the physical side of things, I want a girl that I click with, has the same goals/values as me, I'm sexually compatible with, is confident/funny, and in general someone that I love being around. I really don't want girls that already have kid(s) with other men because I don't want to raise another man's kids. I want to have fun with in my 20s and not be stuck taking care of kids, especially when I work with kids all day (I'm a HS teacher). I also don't want girls who play a bunch of bullshit games with my emotions and who would manipulate me like the "After" movies. Been there done that, and I'm over it. I'm okay with a religious girl (I'm agnostic), but I am not willing to wait until marriage to have sex.

I'm not saying I need a 10/10 IG model who checks every single box, but at the same time I'm not going to settle for mediocre women. I want to get myself out there and get experience, and hopefully someday get married to a wonderful woman. I've seen too many people in my life end up in terrible marriages that fall apart mostly because both people settled, and I refuse to allow that to happen to me. I've mapped out the trajectory of my future, and I believe that I would rather be lonely for the rest of my life than be in a failing marriage.

So what do you think reddit, are my standards too high? Am I being unrealistic?