Are you ready to introduce your new boyfriend or girlfriend to your friends? Here are tips in how to bring someone new into your clique and ways to make them feel welcome.
You’re bringing your love interest to meet the gang for the first time. Every summer, a group of your closest childhood friends rent out a cabin on the lake and spend the weekend there, and you figure this would be a great opportunity for your partner to meet them. You’re a LITTLE worried, after all she’s from a different country and sometimes you don’t even get her jokes. Will your friends think she’s totally weird? Regardless, you are ready to take the risk. Here’s what to do to ease the process and make people feel welcome:
[1] First of all, when you arrive to the party, be sure to be sensitive to your significant other’s feelings. Make sure you don’t leave them on their own to fend for themselves right away. Stick by their side until you see them naturally blending in.
[2] To make things easier, take time to introduce them to the people they’d get along with best. Look for similarities in personality traits or backgrounds. For instance, introduce your Latin boyfriend to your friend who studied in Peru for two years. Or if your girlfriend is really into yoga, make sure she meets your yoga-instructor friend. You get the idea.
[3] Tell stories about your partner to your group, so that everyone can get to know what they are really like. Best to stick to lighthearted, funny stories that everyone will enjoy. Light teasing is allowed. And vice versa, clue your beau into your friends’ quirks and oddities so they won’t feel like an outsider.
[4] As a guest meeting the new person, try to put yourself in their shoes. Would you want to be nagged with a million questions about your life? Or maybe just have a glass of wine and talk about your HOUSE OF CARDS obsession? Don’t be too nosy or prying.
[5] Things not going smoothly or some of your friends are misbehaving. Keep it to yourselves and save gossiping for the ride home—it’s best not to get caught criticizing while you are locked in for the weekend.
