My boyfriend met my family and he didn’t dump me: That’s a good sign
My family can be somewhat overwhelming.
I have three sisters and one brother. I am smack dab in the middle of those siblings – two older, two younger. We are Italian and Irish on my mom’s side, and Irish and Scottish on my dad’s.
This means two things: we like to drink, and we are extremely loud. We talk over each other. We have three conversations at the table at once and somehow we all know exactly what’s going on in each one. However, this comes from years of training since birth. Throw a new person in the mix, and they barely have a chance. Even my grandmother has started raising her hand like she is in grade school when she wants to say something.
To top it off, my parents are divorced, so just double every birthday and holiday and you have an idea of how many celebrations we host during the year. Introducing a new person to these characters is quite the ordeal, especially when you do what I did and wait until you’ve been talking to the person for two months before even bringing them up in conversation (Mom was very unhappy about that).
So when it came time to introduce Awesome to the family brood, I think I was more nervous than he was. He met my dad and my older siblings at my dad’s birthday party, where we played a super embarrassing board game where I had to do the luau for three minutes, and Awesome was required to spend 90 percent of the game wearing a motorcycle helmet.
He met my mom at dinner, where she rapid-fired about 85 questions in a row at him, ranging in subject matter from his childhood memories to his career goals. My younger sisters met him at a local bar where they promptly told us we were “gross” when we kissed more than twice in a span of an hour (hey, we just started dating!). And my 86-year old grandmother is allergic to remembering his name and constantly just refers to him as my “friend” even though in the same breath is asking me in a singsong voice if I’m “in loooooooove?”
But so far, he’s taken it like a champ.
That’s not to say there weren’t awkward moments – what parental meeting with your significant other goes perfectly? But all in all, it went pretty well for the initial meetings. It’s difficult to come into a close-knit family, and my family, although they are the best, doesn’t make it much easier. But then again, if they did, it wouldn’t be worth it when they finally do welcome you in.
Emily Little (nee Campbell) was a perpetually single girl who recently met and married her Mr. Right. Her blog, Dating Emily, has been a two-year diary of her adventures in relationships. Her life of bar-hopping and casual dating has turned into one of dog-walking, craft-making and budgeting for eventual home ownership. But just because she can make a mean casserole doesn’t mean her adventures are over. As she prepares to become a first-time homeowner and eventually, a mom, she is discovering that the adventure may just be beginning.