Meeting Your Date's Parents
You’ve been dating your boyfriend for a few months. So now that you’ve found your true love, it’s time you bring them over to meet your folks. Introducing your boyfriend to your family can be one of the most stressful events ever. Sure, you love him but will your parents? It always seems like parents have such high standards for their kids that are impossible to achieve. You want the initial introduction to be absolutely perfect. Things may not go totally perfect but you can certainly try your best to achieve that.
Making sure your boyfriend is prepared to meet your parents is sometimes helpful. You want him to feel comfortable but not too casual either. Have him dress somewhat in between. If it’s summertime you might want to arrange for a nice barbeque for everyone to get acquainted. It’s more relaxing for both sides than sitting in a formal dining room.
If your parents are normally on their best behavior, you don’t need to do much explaining to your boyfriend. But if they have certain quirks or idiosyncrasies let him know before he meets them. Prepping your boyfriend in the car as what to say and what not to say is very important. All of our parents have certain things that make them go off the deep end. A few topics anybody meeting parents for the first time should avoid are sex, politics, religion, and money.
These are sensitive topics that most of us have strong opinions on. Discussing these issues could potentially cause a big argument. In my experience, if there’s a problem right away, most parents aren’t willing to give the guy a second chance. Safe topics to discuss are your boyfriend’s job, sports, movies and hobbies.
One important thing to stress to your boyfriend is that being friendly is okay but don’t go overboard. Fathers especially do not like when people pour it on thick or overdue friendliness or being funny right away. I brought a boyfriend home one time and he decided to get too chummy with my parents. This didn’t go over well with my dad. Being funny and making jokes can be a great personality trait. However, if not done right, it can come across as sarcastic. Sarcasm can turn off a lot of people.
Hopefully your parents will avoid doing things that might embarrass you like bringing out old family photo albums. You probably don’t want your boyfriend seeing pictures of you at your awkward stage with pimples and braces. Or what about naked baby pictures. I still don’t understand the need for those pictures anyway.
I’m sure your boyfriend will feel more like he’s on a job interview than meeting your folks, but that’s okay. Then you know he’ll be on his best behavior. Don’t panic. Try and relax as much as you can. You can explain some of the above mentioned things to your boyfriend but don’t make him paranoid. You want to both be on your best behavior but at the same time let your parents get to know your new love.
