Introducing your significant other to family

[Mordekaien]

I introduced my girlfriend to my parents after one year of being together. She paid a visit to my parent's house during christmas, and it went fairly well. We had a couple of laughs, and my parents are pretty cool overall, so it wasn't weird or something.
The whole introduction was the typical, "This is A, this is my mother.", routine .

 

[Calibanbutcher]

Perfect wa to introduce your gf to your family:
"Hi everyone, this is "insert name", it's great seeing you all, but we gotta run there is a lot to prepare since we are getting married tomorrow."

Perfect way to introduce yourself to your gf's family:

Walking up to your gf's mom: " I am so sorry for your loss, how long were you married?"

 

[Rblade]

euhm, in 9/10 cases parents are going to behave is interested and civilised folks. Looking forward to meeting their offsprings love interest. Most people aren't psychopaths...

And introducing someone to your parents. "Hey mom, I'm going to have someone comming over for diner in a couple of days, it's this girl I've been going out with for a while." seems pretty servicable.
Or if she is really shy and you're both living at or close by your parents: "This girl I'm seeing is coming over, just a heads up." Could work wonders.

Everybody will be a little nervous, names will be exchanged, and fun will be had. I don't think this should be a big deal or rocket science. Getting someone crazy enough to come along is ussually the hard part.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I'm probably not a good 'template' to go by, for the most part. Never introduced anyone to the folks, but I've been introduced once. First relationship, everyone knew everyone anyway, so there was no need to introduce, and third didn't last long enough to reach that point. Second though... ah...

Her: "Um... Mom, Dad... this is AJ."

She's basically crushing my hand as she says this. Her mother then proceeds to sit down and struggle not to cry, while her father just nods to me, leaves and doesn't come back. Meeting her brother was strange as well, as he took me aside and said he'd help if I needed him to. I got what he meant so it didn't actually strike me as weird until I broke up with her and remembered that...

 

[Creator002]

My family's usually fine, especially with me, since I'm the male child. My sister is currently in a relationship with someone 10 years older than her. My dad was funny about it until he met the guy and my mum is usually easy going, but still cautious.
With me, as long as I'm not dating the wrong sort,[footnote]I couldn't find another word that was a suitable substitute for trash. I'm sure there's a general consensus as to what qualifies as such.[/footnote] my parents don't care. As long as they make me happy.

As for being introduced to parents, my ex-girlfriend's one was a little weird. The dad just sat there while the mum jabbered on and on about good Lord knows. Then the dad stood up, took my hand, gave it a shake and said "Thank you for giving my daughter a chance."
Long story short, she had diagnosed depression, was on meds and had manic episodes. To be honest, I'm glad she ended it. Wasn't happy at the time, over the moon about it now.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I take care my mom doesn't find out about it, she thinks that I would rape here >.>
My gf's familiy does know it, they are fine with it except for her mom...
Was a bit akward when I finally met her parents but went better then expected, outside what I just said.

 

[lechat]

well some of my relatives are pretty racist and i tend to date outside of my nationality so when i do decide to introduce someone odds are it will sound like this
"hey guys meet my new wife"

 

[the_duke_CC]

I've never introduced any partners of mine to my parents and were I to have another relationship I will endvour to keep the two entities apart.

However, I can tell you what hapened to my brother when he intoduced his asian girlfreind to my father, who is not the most politically correct person you'll ever meet. Needless to say it ended badly, the relationship ended unfortunately for my brother.

 

[Sonicron]

I never understood why this seems to be such a nailbiter for people, but then again I was never in the position before. Now that the stars have aligned and I actually have a girlfriend, she instantly proceeded to introduce me to her parents, and a week later I'm basically being treated like family. In about a month my dad will come visit, so I guess I'll introduce my girlfriend to him then - it's the logical and polite thing to do, and based on their personalities I see no possible complications whatsoever.

 

[Something Amyss]

You could just...you know...not do it?

Really not an option with a lot of families.

On the plus side, my family loves my girlfriend. I think they love my girlfriend more than me. In fact, if we break up, I think I have to be the one to move out of the state.

Now her family, on the other hand....

Her mother at the very least decided she hated me before she knew anything about me. But again, not an option to avoid meeting them.

So I'll just be thankful they don't have any working firearms....

 

[Something Amyss]

I never understood why this seems to be such a nailbiter for people, but then again I was never in the position before. Now that the stars have aligned and I actually have a girlfriend, she instantly proceeded to introduce me to her parents, and a week later I'm basically being treated like family. In about a month my dad will come visit, so I guess I'll introduce my girlfriend to him then - it's the logical and polite thing to do, and based on their personalities I see no possible complications whatsoever.

Well, I'm glad that things went well for you, but having brought home more than one girl to the family, I can tell you it doesn't always work out like that. Even if you think they'll get along, they won't necessarily.

 

[manic_depressive13]

I live in my mother's house so it was kind of inevitable that my boyfriend would meet her. It was just a quick introduction before we bailed. I don't like my family, nor do I care about their opinion of the people I associate with. My mother is the last person from whom I would accept a value judgement, what with the scum she brought into the house. My father is also an ass and I'd like to spare my boyfriend the misfortune of meeting him, which shouldn't be hard since I see him maybe twice a year.

I've never met my boyfriend's family and don't really care to. He doesn't get along with them either. I gravitate towards people with shitty family lives since I can't relate to people who get along with their parents. In fact I tend to resent them.

 

[Queen Michael]

She didn't get to meet dad, because I don't want him to be a part of my life any more than necessary. Mom and Momsnewhusband, though, seemed to like her well enough.

 

[TriGGeR_HaPPy]

Same as any new friend I've invited over... Except instead of saying "this is so-and-so", I say "this is so-and-so, my girlfriend". This is pretty much also true for when I've been introduced to my past girlfriend's respective families.

Partly, I guess it works so well because it's normally dealt with so naturally. I've never gotten the whole "go out to dinner for the introduction" thing, because if there are any problems you just have to sit there and everyone's forced to continue awkwardly interacting. For the method I'm used to, after the introduction and a little small talk my gf and I will go off and do our own thing, and she'll steadily interact with the family at hers and my family's own pace (the same goes for when I'm introduced to her family).

All that aside, looking at other responses here, I feel a little weird that it's always gone smoothly for me...

 

[Rawne1980]

Been with my wife now for 9 years .... never met anyone from her family.

She's met mine.

Turned up at my parents house, said "this is Rachel" and that was it.

 

[Naeras]

Getting introduced to families usually just.. happens, at least for me. It hasn't gone wrong any of the times for me, and that's kind of weird considering how psychotic everyone in at least one family was.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

You could just...you know...not do it?

Really not an option with a lot of families.

On the plus side, my family loves my girlfriend. I think they love my girlfriend more than me. In fact, if we break up, I think I have to be the one to move out of the state.

Now her family, on the other hand....

Her mother at the very least decided she hated me before she knew anything about me. But again, not an option to avoid meeting them.

So I'll just be thankful they don't have any working firearms....

Well atleast meeting my family isn't mandatory. The family that I do have could care less about who I am seeing. You are right though, so many people seem to want their significant other to meet the family, and do the dinner. Basicly what I truly meant in my post was, my last relationship I TRIED to get involved with my lovers family and it didn't work out very well, so next time I am just going to meet them as much as I HAVE to, but no more than that. Guess bitter taste has been left in mouth.

 

[EeveeElectro]

I've met all of mine and they've all been lovely to me.

Apparently my first proper boyfriends mum hated me behind my back (calling me a *****, whore, gold-digging tart who just wanted to get pregnant to trick her son into staying with me. I was 15 at the time.)
Only two have met my whole family... They're a bit... rough. They really show me up sometimes too.
Mum and stepdad are usually okay with boyfriends, but I'd have to wait at least a year to introduce them to the extended family.

 

[The Night Angel]

I usually just bring them either home or to a family meal or something like that. No fuss needed, just a simple introduction and that's that. That goes for both the guys and girls I've dated, though I do have a pretty open-minded family, so for others it may be more of a big deal. At the end of the day, your family probably just want to see you happy, so why would they jeopardise your first relationship???

 

[Bvenged]

I'm an incredibly casual guy, so making a big deal out of meeting the family is just sort of... unnecessary stress, I think.

Agreed. It's as simple as "Hi, I'm Y, nice to meet you". There doesn't have to be any major formalities, no awkward situations; just say hi, wait for them to ask about you and talk about yourself in a sentence or two. Ask about them, then your first meeting of the parents is over. Job well done.