Meeting Your Partner’s Family

Meeting Your Partner’s Family

Meeting that special person is very exciting and dating that special someone is even better. In addition, if you have dated someone for a long time then it is possible that the question of marriage may come floating into the air. The though of marriage can be and often is exciting and scary. I know many people who dated a year or more before someone popped the question about marriage. Marriage is an institution that shouldn’t be entered into lightly. Getting married involves doing many things including meeting the family. In fact, it is essential that both people meet the other person’s family before the marriage takes place. This is in order so that both sides of the future family feel comfortable with each other. However, meeting the family is usually a comfortable “meet and greet”. Most of the time meeting the family involves having a meal in order to break the ice. When my cousin first met her future in-laws she was very nervous because she wanted to make a good first impression of them. Her future husband’s sisters were at the dinner as well so I think she was extra nervous, if there is such a thing as being extra nervous when meeting the family. The meal for meeting the family is usually pretty large with a wide selection of beverages to choose from including soft drinks such as root beer, punch, and lemonade. In addition, a large meal also has a large quantity of alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine plus any kind of mixed drink that you can whip up. When my cousin first met her future husband’s family, she wondered how many glasses of wine she would have to drink in order to feel comfortable. Luckily, she only drank two glasses of wine when at dinner when she met her future in-laws.

Meeting the family can be and often is a nerve-racking experience, especially if your boyfriend asks you to meet his mother after the second date. I didn’t wish to meet his mother after our second date because I thought it was too soon in the dating process to meet his family, especially his mother. However, six months after we stated dating, I meet his family when they invited me to dinner at their home. My boyfriend’s grandmother made tacos and Spanish rice. She served flavored coffee and watermelon sorbet for dessert. I was very nervous but the dinner was delicious and I appreciated the light and fruity dessert because my stomach needed to calm down from the combination of my being nervous and the spiciness of the tacos and the rice. In addition, I felt good about meeting my boyfriend’s family because I baked about 24 cupcakes to bring as a gift to my boyfriend’s family.

Meeting my boyfriend’s family turned out to be okay until his grandmother asked me if I was Catholic and I told her that I wasn’t Catholic but Jewish. At that point, I invited them to celebrate Hanukkah with my family and me. She accepted and soon after that my boyfriend and I got married. However, we got divorced four and a half years later due to irreconcilable differences that included domestic violence and the fact that his family didn’t like me. Therefore, meting the family can be a treat and sometimes it can be a trick.