While visiting at Thanksgiving with your new boyfriend in tow may seem like a perfect time for a quorum of your family to meet your special one, think again. Norman Rockwell, it’s not!
It’s not a pretty picture when you can’t ingratiate your significant other – when everyone is preoccupied with unlumping the gravy and keeping the cheese platter away from the dog who is at eye level with the coffee table!
You don’t want to embarrass your boyfriend, no longer your “friend,” as he was known before, and make him feel as if he is center stage. He will either be talking over family members between creamed onions and the pumpkin pie or trying to engage them in conversation when they are satiated, snoring from all those heavenly carbs as they watch the football game after the meal. It’s a tough day to compete with a turkey at trying to create an impression!
Pick instead a time when everyone is relaxed and the getting-to-know-you conversation flows. Make sure your partner is OUT to his family and friends! Perhaps a picnic, a restaurant dinner, Charades anyone? And no formal china to wash, and wash, and wash!
When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know
For more detailed advice, see book, co-authored with a mother of a gay son and a psychiatrist, Jonathan L. Tobkes, M.D.
