Kristin Marthaler

Meeting the parents sometimes feels like a nightmare waiting to happen. Especially if one envisions the experience to be like that in the movie Meet the Parents.

There will always be different opinions about when the proper time is to meet the parents.

“I usually would wait probably nine months to a year,” says Kevin Bierbaum, a junior electrical engineering and technician student.

He said that he believes that meeting the parents is a big step in the relationship because the next big step would be meeting the extended family.

“No one really meets the parents at an early stage in their relationship, it just doesn’t seem to happen,” he says.

Bierbaum’s roommate has a different opinion.

“I would probably wait four to five months, then I would meet the parents,” says Keith Haggerdy, a junior electrical engineering major.

He also believes that sometimes the first impressions parents have aren’t always right.

“I didn’t always make the best choices when alcohol was involved, and they heard about it.”

That could be the one downfall of meeting the parents: now having four parents watching your every move. Especially when you know that every move you make could decide the future of the person you are with. If you do something bad enough, the parents could terminate the relationship through pressure, tightening the purse strings or simply refusing to let the couple be together.

Keep in mind that every relationship is different.

Noel Dossett, a psychology major, says, “I guess it depends on how serious the relationship is.”

If you have just started a relationship and you are already madly in love with the other person, then it would be worth your time to introduce the significant other to your parents.

Meeting the parents is different while dating in college compared to dating in high school.

“I haven’t brought anyone home that I have dated,” said Dossett. “Normally they never come home with me and that would be the prime time for them to meet my parents. Whereas, when I was back in high school, the boy was usually from the same town.”

Although meeting the parents can be a scary experience, it can also be a help determine where the relationship is headed.

“It can be very nerve-racking when meeting the parents; it’s one more step to being serious,” said Amber Kruse, a junior wildlife and fisheries major. “You have to hang out with the family and figure out if you would be able to live with them; eventually become part of that family.”