My (20F) dad (56M) uses me to make himself look like he has a higher status by insinuating that we might be dating

I (20F) am the oldest daughter in my family (I have 3 other siblings), and my parents have recently separated. It was kind of an ugly separation, and my dad (56M) is now dating a younger woman (30F), and he cheated on my mum (55F) with his new girlfriend, who is apparently his sugar baby. A few months ago we were on holiday, and he wanted to go out to a fancy restaurant/club, and had invited all of us to go with him and his girlfriend, initially all of my siblings were going to come, but then all dropped out last minute, and I got guilt tripped into going. My dad told me to dress up and put make up on, even told me to borrow one of his girlfriend's dresses, before heading out. We ended up not eating at the first restaurant we had reserved at for a few reasons, so we headed to another restaurant that is known for being exclusive, and managed to get a table. My dad made a joke that the only reason we managed to get a table so easily was because he had "two beautiful girls" on his arm. He just behaved a bit weirdly the whole night, commenting a lot that I was pretty, etc, but was basically fine, but I still felt objectified and a bit used though.

I found out last week that when my dad told my older brother about the evening, that these people sitting at the table next to us (who one of did come over to talk to me, but barely said a word to my dad or his girlfriend) had asked him which one of us he was dating, and which one was his daughter. He apparently said this with quite a proud smile.

I just feel incredibly weird about all this, and very objectified, and that it's actually incredibly creepy.

It's also not the first time that he has enjoyed the insinuation that he might be dating me (as a kind of status thing? that if he's dating a much younger woman she's doing it because he's rich or something). When we went on a trip to the US (we're from Europe), when I was 17 he sort of did a similar thing.

Am I overreacting? What should I do to stop this from happening? (it's not feasible for me to cut off contact with him as I am financially dependent on him and I believe he would stop supporting me while I am university if I decided to stop talking to him)

TL;DR: My dad has on multiple occasions used me as a prop to make himself look higher status by insinuating that we might be dating

Submitted October 04, 2021 at 06:29AM by flipperflowers https://ift.tt/3a62Q0W