Meeting the Family

There are different points in every relationship where one person or the other will decide that they are ready for their family to be introduced to their loved one. My parents live half a country away and so that makes it a little difficult for Tim. His family, however, is barely a 10 minute drive a town over, and at the end of our second week of dating I met them for the first time.

Week two, you might wonder? I put a great deal of weight in the way a person feels about their family. It’s a quality I’ve always searched for in the men I’ve dated. How do they describe their parents? What kind of relationship do they have with their siblings? I’ve always been close to my older brother and younger sister, and my parents have always been very involved in my life. When Tim agreed that I should meet his family, I was both excited and nervous about what I was going to face.

Friday night dinner. It sounds like a simple prospect, yes? Tim relayed to me that one of his sisters, Amy, wasn’t going to make it because of work, but that I would be meeting his Aunt Kate and also a friendly neighbor who would also be joining us for dinner, named Scott. There was only a little tension in the air when I walked into Tim’s house for the first time. Everything was fairly relaxed, and after a few introductions and a small tour it became even more so. We talked and laughed, and I was introduced to the family pet, a guinea pig named Pugsley, and the music of the Monkees. The dinner was a delicious baked penne dish cooked by Tim’s aunt, and a dessert of chocolatey brownies courtesy of Tim’s mom. It was followed, as with most family dinners, by sitting and talking about the interesting things life has to offer.

Whatever kind of impressions I made that first night I’m only sure of one thing: I was afraid unnecessarily. There was no shark in the water, not even a child playing with a foam fin. Once I realized that Tim’s family was just a family like any other, I was no longer worried and able to express my usual self. The same self that brought me to their home in the first place, hand-in-hand with a wonderful man.

By Sona Sanghvi