When did you tell your family about your SO?

[Haley53]

Haha, my mother was calling him my boyfriend before I was, primarily because he and I were constantly gabbing away with one another and when we weren't, he was the topic of a lot of my conversations with her. :P When I finally told her he'd asked me to be his girlfriend/we'd made it official, she said, "I knew it!"

[xAngelx]

Well me and my SO started our LDR in June and I told my parents in August.. I was sooo scared cuz i didnt know what they would think. But they seem ok with it now

[SDPersona]

Just a few days later after I got back from my intership there was this huge family dinner and everyone was asking and I just let it slip that I was very, very interested in a certain guy. The first question I got after that little bombshell: "Are you going to move down to him???" I was like whaaaa, why are you so accepting of the fact I fell in love with a guy in a different country and now am in a LDR????? hahaha

[Reuschel]

We started out CD so my family knew instantly.

[Madge]

After camp in 2008 I traveled to LA and met my dad there for a father daughter holiday..And I think I told my dad I had met someone (my SO) but at that time nothing really was happening between us...

..Fast forward to a year and a half later

I remember about 2 months in with my SO and I relationship I told my mum on the phone that I would be traveling for a month with Nick in the states..oh and also he would be coming back to New Zealand for 3 weeks

When he arrived my Mum and Dad saw how serious it was between us and that was when the rest of the family found out.

[Rosebud]

Let's see...it feels like so long ago I hardly remember! I think I told my cousin first actually since she had first hand experience with online and long-distance dating, and I think I told her within a few weeks of meeting my boyfriend since I was nervous about diving into a relationship and wanted her advice. Since it was still somewhat uncertain she kept it low-key by my request and we kept it to ourselves. After her, hmm, I want to say I told my aunt next but I honestly can't remember how long he and I had been dating at that point, at least a few months. I know however I told my dad and mom at different times and it was my dad I told first since I knew he'd be a bit more open about it, and that was just about a year after we'd been together since it was right as we were attempting to plan our first visit to meet. I know somewhere in between I had mentioned it to my older sister and my younger sister....uh, I actually don't think I even told her! After my parents knew the information just sort of trickled by word of mouth to the rest of my family so I didn't really have to do anything. Dating as a whole is sort of a rare concept among me and my sisters (I'm actually the first to have a serious, long-term partner) so all that awkwardness that everyone experiences at 15 when you realize you want to engage in relationships with other people? Yeah, experiencing all that NOW :P

[yayagrl]

I haven't told anyone in my family about Jason yet. My close friends know about him, but I know cause of our age gap my parents won't really like it. Hopefully he can meet them when we have our first visit next year. Can anyone say possibly awkward birthday dinner? lol

[rubydissolution]

I kinda told them a few weeks before Christmas...bc we sent each other Christmas presents and they kinda wanted to know why i was staying online til close to 6 am.They've been really good about it.

[Lissy]

My Mom met my SO when I was Skyping with her one day before we became a couple. It was actually later that night, I think, that my girlfriend and I confessed our feelings for each other, and at the end of the week, I pretty much told my Mom, "Actually, she's my girlfriend now." Haha. :3

Telling my Dad...was a bit more of an issue. During my first visit to meet my SO, I went up to see her, but we made a plan for Spring Break where she would come down and see me and meet my family. My Dad didn't even know that I'm gay at that point, and even though my girlfriend said we could act like we were "just friends," I didn't want to have to do that. It wasn't fair to her, it would have upset me, and my Dad deserved to know, so I just straight-up told him that my friend who was coming to see us was my girlfriend, too, and came out to him and told him about my relationship in one fell swoop. I know it was a lot to handle for him, but he was surprisingly calm.

[CanadianGirl]

Ugh, that was such a fiasco.. I wrote a blog entry about it, right after the fact.

I was very hesitant about telling my mom, since she (and the rest of my family) are very traditional, South Asians. Dating is pretty unheard of. Typically, parents play matchmaker and the kids pick from there. My SO is of a completely different ethnicity..and that's super taboo for most of my family. Whenever I brought up the topic of interracial couples, my mother would honestly start crying and screaming. I figured I'd keep it a secret until later. No need in completely freaking her out over what might not even be a very long relationship.

I spent three months plotting how to lie to her exactly, so I could visit my SO in Cali for 2 weeks. I know my mother's brand of crazy pretty well, so I covered my tracks thoroughly. Went off without a hitch. Then I decided I was going to do it again that December (2010 btw). I definitely left some loose ends in my story and didn't try as hard to cover it up. Honestly, I wanted her to catch me. I hate lying and I could tell that my SO was a little upset about being kept a secret. I think it was about a week later that she called me, told me she'd seen calls on my telephone bill...originating from California. She'd seen a couple calls from there before, but I just brushed it off. She was all "Did you go to California?". I said nothing. She asked again. No response. One more time and it was like someone threw a switch. EVERYTHING came pouring out of my mouth. Told her all about him. That, yes, he was more than a friend. We were dating. She was very upset. Rightfully so, I had lied through my teeth. ..I don't regret lying though. Somehow, everything came together in a perfect storm of sorts and now, she's handling it well.

They met on his subsequent visit here. Lord, most awkward breakfast I've ever had..

[Kelly.92]

I cannot keep anything from my mum.... She knew the ins and out of what happened when we met and she had daily updates So with my mum knowing, that means my Nan knowing... And then of course anyone who will listen to my Nan knowing will know (if that made sense..)

So pretty much immediately... When me and my SO went 'official' it was basically a mini celebration in my household!!!

[Zephii]

A long time before we went official the people I cared about knew I had a thing for him, a serious thing lol. I can't remember telling them or any shock. It maybe have come about when I asked my sister if I could use her PO box - didn't want some stranger on the internet knowing my address and then later didn't want my "boyfriend" to have the chance to confiscate my mail.
I remember once he printed out a very bad black and white photoshopped image of him and I together, and I showed my mum. She was amazed. She couldn't use a pc, and didn't understand how you could have a relationship through one, but she supported our unique friendship from that point anyway.

[LilyChiba]

I'd been dating him just over a year and told her on my bday lol. I didn't really think she needed to know any sooner than that and I wasn't comfortable with telling her. She isn't the most supported person and could be helping out a lot more than she does instead of wasting on stupid things, but meh. That's a long ass story all on its own. That said, my sister knew the christmas before that bday. So yeah. She did well keeping silent for 3 months.

[Sierra]

How long did it take for you to tell your family about your SO? And how did you go about doing it?

....

I had mentioned an online friend for several years, and on vacations with my family and what not they knew I was talking to him when I went to go find a computer or whatever. So I guess when he came to visit and we started dating it wasn't a big deal or a surprise. I think that when he came out to visit my family assumed at that point that he was my boyfriend, and while they discouraged me from entering into a LDR, they didn't put up much of a fight.

Now we've been going strong for awhile and they even seem ok with me moving. Of course, I say that now, months before the actual move, lol.

I know if I were younger I wouldn't have had any support at all, but my family all have met him and like him, so I feel like I'm doing the right thing.

[blankita719]

My mom knew I had met him when I was younger and that we'd had a "thing", but for all the years we were just friends, she just knew him as that. When we started talking more frequently and he decided to come down here and visit last summer, I told my mom he was coming and she asked me if there was anything going on she needed to know about. I told her no at that point because there was not. But after he got here, my mom came over to meet this guy I'd been friends with for so long. I hadn't said anything to her yet but she called me later that evening and asked again if we were together, so I told her yes. After that, I'm sure she told the rest of the family but we just sort of put it on facebook and let it go from there. No big announcement - I am 33 so the only people I was really worried about were my son and his son's reactions.