I sat mom down and told her I was gay.

sit sb down 是什么意思呢？

My comment:

Nothing complicated.

When you have something serious to say to someone, something that’s not easy to explain, you say: “Please sit down. I want to tell you something.”

By asking them to sit down, you imply that you have something important and, especially, lengthy to tell them. And by accepting this gesture and sitting down with you, they know it’s going to be a long conversation.

That’s exactly the situation where the speaker faces here. He’s gay and he wants to tell his mom about it.

So he “sits him mom down” and told her – and, if possible at all, explain it.

Hopefully, she’ll sit through this conversation maintaining a seated position.

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本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.