When Is It Time To Meet Parents?

When Do You Introduce Him or Her to Your Family and Friends? Like death and taxes, there's inevitability about 'the next step' you take in a new relationship: introducing them to your family and friends. It's usually possible to keep things under the radar for a while, to give it a chance to grow away from the analytical glare – and inevitable judgment - of those that know you best. However, with each blissful week together, you grow closer to the inescapable, and the holidays can bring it crashing in on you in a single month. Seasonal parties, Christmas day, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve or New Year's Day… all times when your family and friends are going to expect some time with you - and your significant other too. So when do you know you're ready to take that step? And how do you make it go smoothly? Here are four tips…
1) Have You Said Those Three Little Words? No, not 'meet my mother', but that simple declaration of love that you've hopefully been saying before you're parading each other in front of your families. If you're already something of a solid unit, it will only help the inevitable barrage of questions: if you're not, everyone will see the cracks because, frankly, they'll be looking for them. If you're not solid enough to handle an honest critique, you should probably think about waiting a little longer to introduce each other to the people in your life that matter.
2) Put Your Friends and Family in the Picture. Alternatively, despite the relationship being so new - or at least not yet fully established - you would still like to spend the season with your new love. If this is the case, take some of the pressure off by downplaying your situation to your friends and family before they meet. Tell them you're just having fun, or you're seeing how it's going, or be honest and say you've no idea as it's all so new. That way, they'll be forced to ease off their judgments, which will ultimately help you all to relax.
3) Pre-Warned Is Pre-Armed. It's not only your friends and family that need a heads up: help your significant other too by giving them the stats on who they'll be meeting, and how they'll likely respond. Let's face it, many of our core people can be a little… strange, and that's just why we love them. But to the uninitiated, it's good to get an idea of exactly how they're strange, and the best way to handle them. It will stop them feeling like they're being picked on or over-scrutinized in a way that isn't normal to that person, and again help them to relax.
4) Know What It Means. Unfortunately, however much you downplay your relationship, the very fact that you've put your new partner and your nearest and dearest in the same room together at such a time of year is a statement all of its own. Your family will assume he or she has a special place in your life, your friends will be sizing them up as a potential new person in your social circle and your partner will think the gesture is a significant next step in your relationship. You just have to do one thing: decide if you're ready for it.