<p>Meeting a new family can be very stressful. Stuff comes out when it shouldn’t…ever…on any level. </p>
<p>When our now daughter in law (she with the very Jewish name and background) my mother in law was visiting. As we sat down for the appetizers course my mil (she of the stupid variety) said, “Did I ever tell you how I lost my virginity?” No, she’s not senile…just stupid. The looks on the girls’ faces was historic.</p>
<p>And my now dil joined the rest of us laughing into dish towels.</p>
<p>I have faith in us CCers…anyone else have a story?</p>
<p>My family lived in the same general area as Hs family. When I met him, we were both young and living in the family home.( although I had just moved back, after living with a boyfriend for almost a year).
We had been going out for at least a month or so, but he always came over to my house.
First time I stopped off at his parents house, his mom was ironing. Jockey shorts.( we had come into the basement, through the open garage door)
Considering how much I hate housework, Im surprised I didn’t break up with him on the spot. I do as little ironing as possible, and would never even think to iron jockey shorts.</p>
<p>I have a nice story: DH’s family were avid, crazed, skaters – hockey, recreational, had their own backyard rink. Here I come, a woman they had never met, clearly a total klutz, the only person their oldest ever brought to meet the fam. My first gift from them was a brand new pair of skates – and a pillow!! They dedicated the afternoon to teaching me how to stand up and by dinner my MIL pulls me aside. “Honey” she says " That was such a test, and I wanted you to know [FIL] and I think you passed. Now here" and she pulls out a bottle of wine. “Your a## won’t hurt as much once we finish this”</p>
<p>My grandfather was staying with us while his wife was in the hospital getting a knee replacement. I brought my longtime bf home to meet him. In telling a story, my grandfather described a guy as “not dressing very well. Kind of like you.” Props to my bf for not 1) being insulted, and 2) laughing. But we did have a good laugh afterward. </p>
<p>I was the first girl my now hubby had brought home to meet the parents since he was in hs. They live in WV, and they all enjoy making a joke out of how everyone thinks wv is full of back woods rubes. In reality the family through the generations is full of dr’s and counselors with masters degrees, foremans of plants, etc. I had never been to WV before. So we drive up “the hill” to find his mom standing on the front porch, yelling howdeee!, waving a frying pan, and wearing a calico apron. Oh, and she blackened out her front teeth… </p>
<p>When we first met my daughter’s brand-new fiance, my dog bit a hole in his sneaker. When I met my FIL for the first time, he looked at me and said “didn’t your sister hang herself?” (She didn’t, but she did die.)</p>
<p>I expect that we will be meeting my daughter’s future MIL soon now that they are officially engaged, but it still hasn’t happened yet. Not sure why. She lives 15-20 minutes away from us and they’ve been together for 6 years.</p>
<p>I don’t really want to meet them, but the kids got engaged last week, so it seems inevitable. I had suggested the cookie thing to my D, but she said no. Apparently the mother is funny about certain things and she doesn’t bake, so it would make her think I was trying to show her up or something. Which I would not be. </p>
<p>So I have decided to just let the kids figure it out. They are having an engagement party in the early spring, so probably we will meet there.</p>
<p>If there is anyone out there who doesn’t know: I’m Jewish and our kids are Jewish… The in laws aren’t…Jewish…or and they don’t like Jews. So, any reference to Jews here isn’t about us and our feelings. It’s them.</p>
<p>Congrats Zoosermom, I’ve enjoyed your threads/posts about the “inevitable” engagement - glad to hear it has happened! Looking forward to a thread that details the journey from engagment to meeting MIL over cookies or whatever and eventually, the wedding! Best of luck! </p>
<p>I dated the same girl in college for 2.5 years. When I met her parents, I did not know what to call them. First names? Mr. and Mrs.? GF did not seem to think this was an important thing to tell me. So I called them nothing. I could live with that for a few days. But after a few visits, it felt stupid to ask how they’d like to be called. I was tongue-tied. Eventually, I did call her mom by first name. I never did call her dad anything.</p>
<p>When I met DW’s family for the first time, I called them by first names right off the bat. It was very scary for me, but they took it in stride. I was SO relieved.</p>
<p>Whenever DD brings friends home, I tell them up front to call me by name. I hate the idea of anyone suffering in silence.</p>
<p>I just thought of another story, but I am going to not be too detailed so as to not be indentified.</p>
<p>My niece was engaged to a guy that her parents didn’t like. At all. They paid for pre-marriage counseling, hoping that that would point out the error of their dd’s ways. It didn’t. And I thought their objections were over the top. They didn’t like their other dd’s or ds’s fiance/fiancee either so they had lost credibility with me. Anyway, someone threw the niece a fancy shower for all the aunties and grandmothers, etc. The plan was for her fiance to show up toward the end to ooh and aah over the presents and meet those who he hadn’t yet met. I was near the door when he walked in, and, OMG, he was wearing the most inappropriate T-shirt ever. The words, the drawing – WTH was this idiot thinking showing up in a room full of elderly women wearing that??? Sooo immature. My niece intercepted him before he got too far into the room and made him go upstairs and put on one of her dad’s shirts. I apologized to my SIL for not believing her earlier that this guy was a mess. In good news, they are still married with kids and appear pretty happy. </p>
<p>I just met S’s GF over Thanksgiving. She is lovely in all ways, thoughtful, and intelligent. She’s an engineer who is interested solving practical environmental problems and in cooking and fashion. And she seems to be crazy about S. What more could one ask for? :x </p>
<p>I also noted that S is very attentive to her in a way I haven’t seen before. </p>
<p>I’m trying not to get over-excited about this. 8-} </p>
<p>We first met our daughter in law after they had been dating for about two months. She came to a family holiday dinner with about 32 people in attendance, none of whom she had met yet. She handled it beautifully so I knew she was a keeper. She called us by our first names immediately with no hesitation which was fine with us. </p>
<p>We met our other daughter in law when she was a sophomore in high school and casually hanging out with our son… Then they started dating seriously and are now married with two kids. Since she called us Mr and Mrs. for ten years before getting married, the transition to first names was a tough one. Two of her siblings still call us Mr and Mrs. They are now in their 30s</p>