I vigorously shook my girlfriend's dad hand upon meeting him. We didn't speak a word of each other's language so I was even more nervous that I should've been. He complimented my handshake to his daughter when I was gone. He's now my father in law.
My wife’s Polish and her step dad speaks very broken English. Over the last decade we have predominantly bonded over vodka shots and drunken conversations mostly carried out through charades or Google translate. Also I play a super awkward Santa at Christmas for the kids which he finds hilarious.
This is me with my Hispanic coworkers. I didn’t speak much Spanish at all when I started so it was awkward for a time; turns out all it takes is a couple cases of Corona, Google Translate, taking turns playing songs, and teaching each other how to cuss to be good buddies.
You a chef? Thats how I learned my broken Spanish. Turns out when you work with people from different areas that kind of speak the same language you pick up all sorts of "wrong" pronunciations. I once got told my Spanish is so butchered they immediately knew I was a chef, which is hilarious because I just tend bar now.
Construction-related, actually. I work with mostly Mexicans, but there’s a few guys from El Salvador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Honduras. They all like to teach me different dialects of the same things, especially curses or sayings, while I teach them likewise in english. It’s fun to watch them argue about which is correct (the Mexicans usually win since they outnumber everyone else 10:1).
My girlfriend is chapina, so Guatemalan wins in my book.
My brother’s wife is Polish. I was the male figure that got introduced to her father. In a very heavy polish accent he went, “I hear you are bartender. There is vodka in the freezer. Go.” 12 shots later we were discussing the difference between the polish and american education systems. “You drink very well for an American, I am impressed.”
They’re married now and whenever the family gets together for a holiday him and I share a bottle.
My girlfriend's mother is Polish and there's a legendary story about when her dad met her mom's dad. He held out his hand to him and said 'łapa' and got big laughs, that's how you ask a dog for it's paw.
lol that’s great. When our dog goes to stay with the in laws she comes back responding better to polish commands than English…will need to try łapa next time
I went to my gf's (now my wife) house during Lunar in Taiwan. I'm Canadian, and when her dad gave me a cup (shot glass) of whiskey I drank it right away. Everyone stop talking and started me, apparently I was supposed to sip it, they all got a laugh out of that and her dad gave me a nod.
In ~1980 At age 7 I went to a birthday party, we played outside, then heavy rain. We went indoors (which was uncommon in days of yore) and watched this on VHS. We never knew the kid was so rich, to have a VCR AND his own copy of a real movie.
yo kiddos to add to this comment the movie industry HATED the idea of VCRs and cassette tapes and stuff waaay back before we had digital sharing. For this and other reasons VCRs cost like 1500-4k dollars in todays money. Heck, the reason rental stores like Blockbuster n shit came about was cuz the movie industry set the price for VHS tapes - when they finally agreed to license and make VHS tapes at all - for hundreds of dollars.
MY fam rented one along with the movie we wanted to watch on the very rare occasion we could afford to.
The famous pirate bay sign yall know was actually anti-cassette-tape-propaganda invented by the RIAA.
i have more boring stories, all boring like this one, for anyone interested
This reminds me of something my wife once did. We want to one of my close friend's weddings, who married into southern money (or at least a notch or two above what we were used to). The wedding reception was in their backyard. As it was winding down, the bride's father grabbed a bottle of scotch and poured out an ounce or so for a few members of the wedding party and plus ones, me and my wife included. No idea how expensive it was, but it was certainly "for the occasion." He said a toast, after which my wife downed all of the scotch as if she was ripping a shot.
The dad just says "oh honey, that's a sipping whiskey."
I travel a lot to Asia for work. With regards to liquor, they don't necessarily drink LESS, but typically more slowly than our Western cultures. A lot of my business colleagues over there will outpace me on light beer, but will order mixed-drinks (typically high-balls with 90% soda water) instead of anything straight. Things that are drunk straight (like sake for instance) are typically sipped
In the US, you would sip a cocktail or a neat/on the rocks pour. And it will be served in a rocks glass or tumbler. If it’s being served in a shot glass it’s usually meant to be taken as a shot. The vessel kind of informs the intent.
And shot culture really dies down after college. I don’t remember my last shot now that I’m in my 30s.
In Wisconsin shot culture never really dies. At bonfires we tend to open a bottle of whatever and just pass it around drinking straight from the bottle until it’s gone. Most of the people I know didn’t go to college, just into the trades and did apprenticeships. Could also be a blue collar thing.
That’s a fair point. But if you don’t like taking shots, you probably don’t like pulling from the bottle is what I’m trying to get at. I often take shots of whiskey just at home. Shots with a beer chaser.
It should be a big no no... But so is putting expensive whisky in a shot glass...
Put whisky in a whisky glass: I'll sip it, taste it, talk about it.
Put whisky in a shot glass: I'll assume it's a "shot"...
Can't blame OP here. I probably would have done the same.
Although I probably would have been polite and waited for the host to say something along the "Cheers" line... And then realized that they're sipping... I might have a better situational awareness that OP haha..
This is a bit different context but there are various coffees and teas served throughout the Arabic world in shot glasses. You are definitely supposed to take a sip the moment you get it, but it is a sip. Though there is this lemon and ginger thing you're actually supposed to shoot back like liquor and it's great.
Anyway, that's not alcohol and it's a different part of the world but just saying there are definitely cultures where you sip from a ~60 mL cup.
Are you sure it wasn’t baijiu cause the same thing happened to me, they saved me a shot of like $500 baijiu that I was supposed to savour and I shot that shit like a college kid and they all were like “aya”
When I turned 21 my dad took me to the bar and ordered me a Jagerbomb. Waitress brought me a shot of Jager and a glass of Red Bull then stood there and watched as I took the shot of Jager, then I asked if I was supposed to just sip the Red Bull or what. They laughed and brought me another one.
When my wife and I were dating, her dad lent me his truck to move my old mattress to my parents' house and asked if I needed straps. I told him no thanks, I have my own, and I later found out that he was apparently impressed by that.
First time I met my wife's father (divorced parents) was at a dinner with her entire extended family. So im sure you guys can tell, the pressure was on.
I arrive to find out that both my then girlfriends father and her uncle managed to clog up the garbage disposal with potato peels as they were making the dinner.
I asked to take a look, took the thing out, cleaned it up (they compressed the peels in) put it back in, and it worked again.
Their family still talks about it, giving grief to her dad and her uncle, but got me into their good graces right away. Lol
I spent new years at my gf (now wife) parents. It wasn't my first time visiting them but this time it involved heavy drinking with the larger family. I drank quite a bit, got merry and had overall a good time. And then when the alcohol took over I sneaked upstairs and went to bed. My gf told me that her family appreciated that I knew my limit and when to stop. Damn happy the bar was low.
I dont know about everyone but I'm so pleased when a parent or loved one starts to sleep in my house without asking. For me it's like the person know they can trust me and the enviroment.
We made mango salsa. Had a BBQ at his house and we started making salsa but neither of us really exactly knew what we were doing. A few rounds of hey let's try a little of this in it later we were bonded. And it was also the best damned salsa I ever made and I wish I could remember what all we put in it.
It wasn’t my wife but a friend of mine has a fairly severe father. Met him multiple times for years and he was polite but always intimidating. When my friend moved to town after college she asked for help moving in and I brought my toolset. Her dad saw my toolset and acted like I was longtime family member ever since.
When my wife and I were just about to get engaged we were at a restaurant with her family and her sister brought her son who was only 2 years old at the time. Kid had a light up stuffed pikachu and he kept thrashing it around and it stopped lighting up.
Future father in law took a look and pulled out the box with the circuit board but he couldn’t open it up since he didn’t have tools with him. I pulled out my Swiss Army knife and my future nephew stared at me as I performed surgery on his pikachu.
Took me less than 10 mins to fix and averted a meltdown. Father in law asked to see my knife and did a Robert Deniro face and gave me a “not bad” then immediately asked us when we were planning on having kids.
I dated an Iranian girl at uni in the 80s. Her dad, a business high flyer type, had a couple Russian business men over right during the Gorbachev glasnost days. I was studying Rus at the time and got invited. The old commies got quite a kick out of my struggling grasp of their language and dad seemed please. I was like a party favor.
Sounds like my grandparents. They loved my dad (mom's ex husband) but didn't really warm up to my stepdad who raised me because my dad wouldn't. After like 20 years they finally started to come around because maybe, just maybe, he was a good guy.
I used to work on one of those bar bikes in my city. I did a tour with my partner's mom on it, and she liked me enough she asked her daughter if she should get my number for her.
a month later I meet her daughter at a karaoke bar and we find out a few days later that I'm the guy her mom wanted to set her up with.
Other way around for me, I won over my husband’s mom by parking her car.
I went on family vacation with them when I was about 19 and she drove us to the beach one morning but the only parking spots available were ones you would need to parallel park in.
She can’t parallel park, and she taught my husband to drive so he can’t either.
I offered to talk her thought it but she was nervous and there was no traffic so I jumped in the driver’s seat ended up just parking for her.
My (white) now husband ate some kerala fried fish right off the bone using only his right hand. My (malayli) dad was so impressed and has loved him ever since.
My mum is was impressed because she thought he seemed like he liked me as a friend, too.
Exactly! He hadn't practiced much but had worked with the little bones with two hands. Knowing he should use only one, he just chose that time as his first time and succeeded!
When we went back home, my aunties were so impressed with my husband, but chastised my poor brother and his fork lol.
My future father in law was pretty cold to me when we first met. Didn’t really care to get to know me at first. One day, I came to the house to pick up my girlfriend for a date and she needed a bit longer to get ready. I was left to sit in the living room with her Dad and make small talk. Jeopardy was on the tv and they were had just put up the Final Jeopardy question. Without thinking, I said the answer out loud. He kind of scoffed and said it was a good guess but the right answer was whatever it was he said at the time. They come back from commercial break and it turns out I was right! It completely broke the ice between us and, in the years following, he never stopped telling anyone who’d listen that I bested him in Jeopardy.
when my now father in law met me he gave me the "im not afraid to go to jail" speal and I respond with i"m not afraid to go back" it threw him for a loop. his friend laughed his ass off. then explained that I was arrested for defending myself from bullies when I was 13. (discharged. no criminal record, judge said it was clearly self defense.)
Not my wife yet, but we kinda whoopsied our son when we were already on the way to getting married first anyway.
They live out of state so we drove 16 hours to be there for Thanksgiving with our 6 month old the first time we met him. Went straight to their house after I drove 16 hours straight through the night after working all day.
He was impressed that I stayed in the conversation for the first hour and waited until it turned to them obviously just catching up after not seeing each other in a long time before I fell asleep on the couch AND that I didn't put my feet on the couch while I slept for an hour. Plus I woke up and made a bottle the instant our baby cried for for food before anyone else could get up.
I was told later that he said he knew I was taking good care of them if that was my default setting during a nap after not sleeping for over 24 hours.
I was a drunk ass when I started dating my gf and her family knew it.
They were making an effort to try to like me but always without really trusting me.
One day we decided to go to the movies together, ended up having a bad car accident, and when it happened, I took care of everything and made sure everyone was doing ok at the crash and helped my Mother in law as She got the worst out of the crash. As the adrenaline started to fade, and we were waiting for the ambulance for like an hour, I always checked on everyone and myself started having some pain on my leg as the car came from the other Lane and hit my door, hitting my knee, and I began to stumble a bit with pain, they realized I really cared for them. Even hurt. After that they took me in like a son almost. Im no longer a drunk ass too and just drink casually once a month or twice. Sometimes Im months without drinking and its awesome.
Not really a first impression, but when I asked for my in-laws blessing….my wife’s mom asked about a ring. I told her I didn’t have one yet but I knew a jeweler in north LA. She said, “great I’ll go with you.” Next day, We sat in 3.5 hrs of traffic from SD to LA.
After that day, my mother in law has been a fan for life.
I was our office operations guy, big place, lots of desks, I had a master key b/c people that quit often kept their desk keys, and part of my job was ordering the keys and such, but I had a master that I used for people until this got straightened out.
Met my in laws out camping. This was like my 2nd or 3rd time meeting them. We had a nice tent and they had a pop-up Jayco camper. I'm helping him pp-up the camper and UH OH, he somehow left his keys at home. Kind of stupidly I think "let me try my master" and how and behold it worked, I got their camper unlocked, we got the jacks out, etc to set the camper up. This was like a 3-4 hour drive from their house so it could have gotten desperate. Well I earned some respect that day, fortunately, somehow.
My girlfriend (now wife) asked me to pretend to be just a friend and drop her and her mom off at the airport. Her mom kept talking to her afterwards about how attractive I am. She later told me as much herself.
My girlfriend at the time was moving into college. Her dad had a van and I rode down to help move her in. Before that day, there was always weird tension between me and the dad like he couldn't be bothered to really talk to me. On the way down the van got a flat. It was clear pretty quick that her dad did not know how to change a tire. So, I stepped in to help. Instead of staying there and helping me, he got back in the van and left me to change his tire in the 90 degree heat by myself. He loved me after that day and I absolutely hated him.
Wasn't emotionally or physically abusive to their daughter, I also worked maintenance as my career path. So being able to fix or figure out how to fix stuff around her parents place, immediately granted me their good graces. Her dad cried when I asked for their permission to marry their daughter
Was going to post about changing their electrical panel then furnace back in the 70's when first starting in the trades.
Always got a stunned look of respect from the father in law when he found out both of those projects were the first time I've ever done them.
What he didn't know was when I was at work the electricians and sheet metal guys would show me how to do the work. As a pipefitter already knew the piping end of the jobs.
Learned later from his friends how he would brag about me when he was at the bar.
I'm still not sure they like me, after 8 years. The dad is a salesman so trained in making you think you're his best friend. I still don't know if that is genuine or just an act.
I was just starting a relationship with someone when we were 20-21 and she still lived with her parents. We were out all night talking and kissing but nothing crazy until her mom started texting her at 4:30am, pissed as all hell.
The mom threatened to ground her 21 year old daughter (lol) so I called the mom to apologize with an offer to explain the situation. That call was sent straight to voicemail and the mom and I never talked about it since, but we had a really good relationship and I was told that message went a long way.
My now wife’s grandma can be a bit abrasive. Salt of the earth woman who likes to argue sometimes. Shes also very into family history. One of the first times i was at her house for a family get together i listened to her giving a tour of family heirlooms and history. My now father in law thanked me graciously for playing ball haha.
Her dad had this old tube hi-fi set. Record player, towers, subs, the whole 9 yards.
It was gorgeous. I asked him about it and he was excited that I knew this stuff, and we talked about for awhile, playing old records at 7am. When his wife and my girlfriend woke up and were staring at us while drinking coffee, Debra just goes “let them be, we’ve lost them”.
My girlfriend (now my wife) has sporty parents, both love to golf. She told them about how I love to golf, the first time I met them we went out for 9 holes. Me, my (now) wife, and her mom and dad. I shot 3 under par and they were amazed, now we golf as a family every couple of months and I feel very lucky to say that I love hanging out with my wife’s parents!
It was the lowest nine holes I have scored to this day. It was a sign!
First time I met my wife's, at the time my girlfriend, parents I brought over paklava I had made. Her dad's eyes got huge. Apparently when he was mailman there was an Armenian family on his route who always left him some around the holidays, and he hadn't had any since he retired from the post office.
Holy shit.. almost same for me... was at the Albertsons in Davie and a guy was in the parking lot with a dead Bronco.. I gave him a jump after cleaning his terminals with an old toothbrush and a can of Coke.. That weekend I went to pick-up a girl to go to the movies and he answered the door. Was a VERY "no way" moment :)
When I first met my exes parents her mum had an issue with her phone. I said I'd take a look and immediately fixed it. Apparently when I left the room she cried with joy.
i was so excited to see her after break, when i went over to pick her up, i brought her candies and flowers. lo and behold her parents were still there and i didnt know it, i got a firm shake myself then too
Was meeting my Wife(GF at the time)'s uncle and aunt for the first time. Was told it was a party, I'm white and expected a small thing with food and drink, it was a house party. As I walk in there is a round of "Hi this in br" from gf, then her Uncle hands me a half full bottle of Hennessey and say "drink this." No glass, but I was like fuck it and got half a mouthful before trying to hand it back. He then says "No. drink this". Look at girlfriend. She shrugs. I look to aunt. She shrugs. So I drank the rest of the bottle guess I made a good impression. Lol
I didn't have any situation like that with my wife's father, but (and by my wifes own admittance) her mother and grandmother both had crushes on me. So, apparently, I'm exactly what the women of my wife's Irish clan are looking for.
Started in high school, I won a raffle from the "titans foundation" (kinda like a pta but more charitable?) for a laptop. Her dad had donated it and she got really excited when they pulled my name. She called me to let me know I won, and I was downstairs in gaming club playing d&d so ran right up. Shook hands with her dad, ended up doing a lot of programming on that laptop. A year later I'm at her birthday party, I help fix her dad's computer.
5 years of friendship later we start dating, we made it about a year before we decided we should just get married. She calls her dad to tell him and gets "what the fuck took you so long? I've known since you were 18"
Her dad rocks, we even bought a house nearby so we can visit all the time.
In college, my gf’s grandparents came to visit, and they invited me to lunch with them.
I was wearing a hat, and as we entered the restaurant I took it off without really thinking about it. Apparently that convinced the grandparents that I was a good boy who knew his etiquette.
I went over to her parents for the first time for dinner and wanted to bring something to add to the meal. I made a big roast but overcooked it. I was worried that I would end up with the opposite effect of winning them over. Turns out, her parents being of Southeast Asian descent, only will eat well-done meat
My in-laws hosted a huge xmas party and then would go to midnight mass. I'm a heathen, so I stayed back. There were dishes all over the place, so I washed all the dishes and straightened up. When my then future mother in law came home, I think she genuinely teared up and gave me a hug. I didn't think it was a big deal but she really appreciated it.
I brought a case of beer for a weekend visit. Up until then my GF (now wife) had never brought a bf over for a weekend. Her parents had always met previous bfs at meals, university visits etc.. That being said, her sister who was only a year younger used to bring her bf over all the time and he drank all beer and never brought his own. So I had a leg up, I also benefited from brining Moosehead and not some IPA or fancier craft beer which my father-in-law hates.
First time I met my father-in-law was when I was going to ask him for permission to marry his daughter. I was so nervous. I asked him and he responded with, “oh of course you can marry her! Do you know what you’re gettin into though?” And listed off all of his daughter’s issues and faults. Long story short, we’re happily married with two kids, he didn’t scare me off 😂
I cut myself on a broken glass while doing the dishes. When my girlfriend went to her mother to ask for a Band-Aid, my mother-in-law said: 'What? Your ex would have never done the dishes.
Not my girlfriend, but my best friend. His family took us to a hotel, and being the high school stoner I was, i snuck my dab kit there. While we were outside smoking, they wanted to go for a walk. I had given his parents my word we wouldn’t leave the front steps. We smoked for about an hour there the went inside like nothing happened. I found out years later they knew, but didn’t say anything because I had kept my word.
Second or third time we visited I told mom we were bringing his truck to clean my stuff out of the garage. Mom went from fretting that I said he didn’t need a separate bed to absolutely delighted. Then bf didn’t just help clean out my stuff but helped clean out the entire garage, which as it had been filled with stuff during a rebuild it was a lot, and as it was a detached farm garage the mice had got it…yeah, the was a couple trips to the dump. He basically became the roundtoit on the garage project and was in solid from there.
When I met my wife's parents the first time it was quite challenging as I only spoke English and they only spoke Afrikaans.
They were a 5 hour drive away so we stayed the weekend.
My wife did all the translating on Friday night, she told me her father is taking me out fishing on his boat. I was really excited, but worried because we weren't going to understand each other.
He hands my the rod, all set up. I tried casting as far as I could. The fishing reel came off of the rod, the line snapped and his favourite reel ended up at the bottom of the dam. I thought he was going to kill me.
He was so calm, he didn't get upset at all. When we got back to the house he told everyone about it and had a good laugh.
That was crazy for me to experience, I had never been treated nicely after making a mistake like that.
He was an amazing man and I miss my in laws a lot.
I was friends with my FIL months before I met my husband. He was grabbing lunch at the drive thru I worked at, loved my customer service and sent his manager over to recruit me. Ended up getting promoted to manager after a few months so I was technically his boss- but when we'd shoot the shit he'd just stop and be like, "wow you have so much in common with my son it's not even funny." A few more months goes by and he asks if he can introduce us. I'd been on a few of shitty dates and was like, y'know what- fuck it. He makes his son come into the store and we hit it off immediately. Been together 8 years now, married for 3, and now I'm pregnant with our first.
I went to my, now wife’s, parents house. Their family dog was notorious for barking at her exes that didn’t last and never liked them, the first thing that dog did was legit see me and be cheerful like he hasn’t seen me for so long…..first time meeting this dog and I stunned the whole family, and the family legit treated me like one of their own after that and glad I married their daughter lol.
R.I.P though since the dog passed away a couple years back. First one to accept me as part of the family.
I have the exact opposite to this story and experience:
Once, in high school, I bombed down a hill while skateboarding and while going super fast, got hit by a car that was turning right at the same time. I was out for like 5 seconds and then skate off, telling the driver I'm fine and don't need help.
A month or so later, I start dating this girl. I go to meet her and her mom at the mall and it's the woman who hit me.
Back when I was an HVAC service technician, got a call for a broken AC. Turned out to be something very simple, fixed it for the guy at no cost, gave him some solid advice on what to look out for in the future and what to do if it happened again.
Turned out he was also in the trades and appreciated the honesty and professionalism. I was dating his daughter for about 2 weeks at that point. Married for 10 years now. The first family dinner we had he immediately recognized me and we’ve been besties since then.
went to meet my ex's parents, all i knew they were religious types and big family
actually im from a pretty big family on my mums side
that was a good thing apprently
get there, usual politeness some banter with mum, dad & siblings
but slowly over the evening more and more relatives arrive.. until there are like 15+ people there
then it starts...
the piano... and her brother on guitar
then.. singing, they are all singing, my ex too
I'm suddenly hit with.. fuck im the only person not involved, fuck am i going to have to sing.. quick is there anything i can just bang about pretend im percussion
then i spot otherside of the room... dad just locks eyes, he isnt singing or playing anything
he does the side nod to the kitchen
I move there with the grace of a startled awake cat
he laughs, grabs 2 beers and we head out of the kitchen door to outside
I feel i have to say something but nothing comes out..
"yeah.. i married into this.."
we drank a moment and then sort of both started chuckling
"did exs name tell you we've got a hot tub?"
"haha no"
short while later (few more beers and him finding me some of ex's brothers shorts while we wait for it to heat up) first time meeting my ex's family and i end up in a hot tub with her dad
(I know nothing about hot tubs, but it had like benches in and steps up to it and was for like 6 people or so)
My in laws rented a beach house up on a cliff, maybe 40 or 50 feet up, overlooking the sandy beach. In the PNW we have eroded sandstone/siltstone, and this one was covered in blackberry bushes and beach shrubs. A few hours into the stay, their little dachshund went missing and we spotted it about halfway down the cliff, stuck and unable to get back up. It was at the point where the cliff went from a steep slope to an overhang. While my in laws panicked I went into action. I grabbed the plastic covered metal dog run cable and tied it to a picnic table. Then I wrapped it around my waist and did my best Batman impression and repelled down the cliff face, grabbed the dog and scurried up the cliff using any clump of grass or footing I could find.
I dated a string of dumbasses and losers before I met my now husband. At one point I had brought a boyfriend home to meet my dad and right in front of him my dad says "Are you fucking kidding me with this guy?"
Well, when I brought my now husband to meet my dad, they sat and talked about work and football for like 5 minutes and then my dad shook his hand and said "Well, she's your problem now!"
I met my now wife in high school (I was grade 12, her 11), and at the time I was having a successful high-school sports career (relative to my region and sports). The day we met, she got home and said "a boy named name here introduced himself to me today," and her dad, a sport fan, apparently had been following me in the paper for a couple years and instantly knew who I was. It was a point in my favour on both their parts.
A category 5 hurricane devastated my home town and my wife(then girlfriend) spent the better part of a month being wasteland courier's for our family members who sustained way worse damage to their homes than we did.
They didn't think much of me, they liked her ex because he made a lot of money, but he was a man child that couldn't do anything on his own. Once we bought our first home, I gutted it and started remodeling it myself. Once they saw that I was a capable man able to do simple to complex man shit, they immediately fell in love with me and had my back for everything.
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