As we grow from adolescence to adulthood, a lot of things change. Our hormones even out, we figure out taxes and get bank accounts and 401K's, and the fears we had as teenagers fade away. But there's one fear that never goes away -- the terror that comes with the meeting of your partner and your parent(s).
The whole process seems to be set up for excessive amounts of awkwardness. It creates within you a sense of anxiety that few other situations can. Your mind begins to race and become inundated with overwhelming thoughts and feelings.
In our experience, that messy thought process looks a little something like this:
1. Let the awkwardness begin!
2. Listen up, kids. Y'all better not embarrass me. Parents, keep it in check. Partner, pull yourself together.
3. Nobody make it weird. Nobody make it weird.
4. But how much does my parents' approval really matter? It's not like I'm going to dump this person if they don't approve, right?
5. What about PDA? Are we standing too close together? Are we making this weird for my parents? Maybe we should tone it down? But, I mean, it's not like they don't know we're together. What's a safe middle ground?
6. Have I prepared my partner enough for this?
7. I swear, if Dad breaks out the baby pictures, I am GONE.
8. What's the worst that could happen? Bad question. Terrible question to ask.
9. Do my partner and my parents have anything in common they can use to bond? No. Not a thing. Literally just me. That's the only thing they have in common. Perfect.
10. Why didn't I put this off longer? We could have gone months -- years! -- without doing this.
11. It'll get less awkward, right? Over time?
12. If nothing else, I guess this is a great way to test how much my partner cares about me. So there's that.
[iframe https://giphy.com/embed/GkS4RSUkAzAME allowfullscreen="" class=^{{"giphy-embed"}}^ frameborder="0" height="214" width="480"]
