5 Tips For Meeting Family & Friends Of Your Significant Other For The First Time

Here you are, with the person you love, in a relationship that you adore, and then they say the magical words, "Are you ready to meet my family?"

Okay, maybe those words aren't magical and for some, this would be downright scary. 

As we all know, meeting the family is a big deal, especially if this occasion will be held through a zoom call or any other virtual setting. In this case, we thought we could help you by providing tips and tricks on what to do when meeting the friends and family of your significant other for the first time.

Tip #1 Start with the friends

More likely than not, your significant other’s friends will be around the same age as your partner and if you two are close in age then they should be in similar age to you. Even if they're not similar in age to you or your partner, they will most likely be far more relaxed than the parents or extended family members that you will meet in the future. By getting to know and introducing yourself to the friends it can help ease your way into a familial relationship with other members of the family.

Use this opportunity to explore topics with your significant other friends that would be hard for your significant other to answer. For example, what were they like as a kid? What do they normally do when they hang out? This can give you an insight into how your significant other reacts and or what they are familiar with when you are not around.

Tip #2 Talk to the siblings

Before meeting the parents, try meeting their siblings or cousins or whoever has a close familial relationship with your partner. This is important because it creates a bond between you and their family but it also helps when meeting the parents. If in one scenario, you meet the parents and the sibling or cousin is there, then it helps ease your tension because you already know someone. On the other hand, if the sibling is not around, then it is possible that they’ve already talked about you with the parents and have hopefully put in a good word.

Tip #3 Expectations

Talk with your partner about what their parents expect. Everyone has grownup with a different set of rules in the household. Even two people coming from a similar cultural background can be accustomed to drastically different environments within the home. With this in mind, speak with your significant other about what their parents expect. At the end of the day, you are entering their household and should be aware and willing to follow their rules.

For instance, some people are okay with walking into a house with shoes on, other people find that extremely disrespectful. In this case, ignorance is not bliss and you can start by giving off the wrong impression. Of course, we believe that you should be yourself, but it is also important to know how to act within certain environments.

Tip #4 Be you

Now that you’ve met the friends, extended family/siblings and you’ve spoken to your partner about the expectations of their parents, it is time to finally meet them. It’s always great to try and not show up empty-handed and to bring something they may like. However, above all the upright performance aspects of meeting parents, they want to see the genuine connection and love you have for their child. Show your confidence and be open to engaging with them on a variety of topics. Display your knowledge but also be an engaged listener. First impressions matter and as long as you show how amazing you are, because you are amazing, then everything should fall into place.

Tip #5 Virtual Meeting

If the first time you're meeting is through zoom or a phone call this may be a barrier to showing off your personality, however, it can also create a less stressful environment. The fact that they can't see everything that you do means that you can sit in a comfortable position, have a stress ball in your hands if needed and if worse comes to worst, you can have a bunch of questions on the side pre-written that you can look at if you’re unsure what to say next. Take a virtual meeting as a blessing in disguise and if you are truly panicking, tell them you need to use the washroom, take a quick break, center yourself and join the conversation again with your confidence and smile ready to go.

To conclude, this blog is one of our more light-hearted and short writings as last week was long and emotionally intensive. As always, we want to remind couples that there are simple tips & tricks that should be taken with a grain of salt. We personally do not know the circumstances of any relationship outside of our own and more specifically we don’t know what you are going through. That’s why if you ever need to speak with someone one on one, feel free to reach out to us at any time or speak with a professional that will be able to give insightful tips that are specific to your relationship.

Want to get in touch or be featured in our blog? Email us at info@skipthedistance.com

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