Canada is a big place and far less densly populated than the USA. I however was lucky, my in-laws live in the same city as I do.
I’ll never forget the first time I met Roger and Steph. Mrs.Scriblerus and I were snuggled up on the couch at her parents place watching a movie. I heard her father coming down the stairs, at which point I leapt to the far end of the couch and assumed the innocent shoir boy posture (hand folded on my lap, sitting up straight etc. ):wally My wife still laughs at me about that one… Shortly after we started dating she took off to Europe for 3 months. I guess her parents took pity on me and decided I was a guy that they would like to have around because while she was away I was invited over for dinner several times (and when you are in university,living on your own you NEVER turn down a free meal) and more than my share of golf games…
This September we will celebrate our 2nd anniversary at a quiet cabin on a lake… so far so great!!
I met my in-laws when I was 14, four years before we got engaged and eight years before we got married. I would rather have met them on equal footing as an adult, because I think much conflict could’ve been avoided that way. But who knows
My husband knew my mother through business for rather a long time before I met him. He and my Mom had not met face-to-face, but had a very friendly relationship over the phone. When he invited my Mom out for a cocktail hour business meeting (after all, they’d “known” each other for four years and had never met) Mom panicked at the last minute and asked me to come along. Her reasoning was: “He’s young, not much older than you, I think, and once we get done talking business I’m afraid I’ll have nothing to say to the poor guy all night!” It was truly love at first sight, and we stayed out that night, with poor Mom in tow, until nearly 4 AM.
I met HIS mother when she showed up at his house one morning bright and early. He had gone to work, and I was lazing about wearing one of his shirts and not much else. She had a key. She walked in, and said “Hello, dear! You must be J! Oh, dear… I DO hope you’re J… you are, aren’t you? Oh, good. Is there coffee made?”
Oh, duh. I typed all that out and forgot to answer the OP. I met my MIL about two weeks after the hubby and I started dating, about a month before we moved in together and about a year before we got married. I met my father-in-law shortly after I met my mother-in-law – they invited us out for a double-date.
It was my step daughters future mother in law. My step daughter had never met her till yesterday and her son last saw her 4 years ago. She lives in Fresno and her son most of the time in the Tacoma area of Washington. I don’t know the reason for the 4 years since they last saw each other. It’s none of my business.
I can do better than that as described in marriage #2.
Inlaws #1. I was introduced to my future IL’s when I was about 16 years old. My older brother and first wifes older sister were dating at the time. They will celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary this October. I dated the middle of the 3 sisters for about a year then we went our separate ways. The younger sister, 3 years younger than me, was more of a pest at the time. 3 years later, I started dating the younger of the 3 sisters and we ended married and had a son together. The marriage lasted only 2 years then we were divorced.
Almost inlaws #2. I met her at a grocery store. Her car was overheating and I used to work at a radiator shop. After knowing each other for only 4 weeks, becoming serious only the week before, we suggested getting married on a Thursday, got the license Friday, and were married the following Tuesday by a judge on a coffee break. I met my inlaws the next night when we sprung the news on them. Her mom fainted, her dad was happy as can be and her 3 brothers gave us funny looks. My mother and the rest of my family found out the following Friday. She had met my mother a number of times before we wed. What made this a ticklish situation was I am white and she was black. Unfortunately, 2 weeks after we married, she was transferred to New York City. She worked for an advertising company that is based in Tacoma but has an office in New York. I had just gone back to work at Boeing after being laid off and knew I would not like living in New York. This was her big chance to make it and really wanted to go. We realized that maybe it just wasn’t meant to be and we had the marriage annulled. I still miss her on an occasion to this day. She has since married and had a couple of kids.
Inlaws #3. Never met my FIL. He was estranged from the rest of his family. My current wife lived with her mother and when we met and later moved in with each other then got married. MIL lived with us the whole time. The Lord took her from us much too early at 60. I enjoyed the few years we knew each other. My wife never got to meet my mother. We met for the first time on October 7, 1989 and my mom died 2 days later. We didn’t know each other real well but she helped me get through my mothers death. I returned the favor a few years later. We have been married almost 12 years and I wouldn’t change a thing.
This Sunday I will become an in-law for the second time. A son I fathered before marriage #1 has married and has a couple of kids. I dated his FIL’s younger sister when I was in high school. I was not invited to sons #1 marriage, we were having a serious difference of opinion at the time but it has now been resolved. But I digress. Both of my wifes daughters call me dad and think of me as their real father. Neither really knew their biological fathers. I have a few questions before I walked the bride down the aisle, guess I will start another post for answers.
The original plan was for him to come spend spring break with me in late March 1997. His birthday being March 2, that year on February 27th his mom announced “we are going to Kentucky as your birthday present to meet this girl because I don’t want you driving it for the first time alone during spring break.” (Basically she wanted to check me out.)
So I met her the same night I met him, they had found a hotel room and one of my sorority sisters took me to see him.
I have the greatest MIL in the world. I don’t have to put up a front with her, I can be honest, she stays out of our business and she’s kind and giving. She thinks I’m pretty cool too.
(I don’t suppose it hurts that I gave her a granddaughter. She never had girls of her own …)
Do SO’s parents count as in-laws? If so, then I met my b/f’s parents just before his trial. (Long story, suffice it to say that he did something stupid and illegal, but not evil. He’s a good man, really.) We’d been going together since October, this was in March of last year. When it was over (with a good outcome: probation instead of jail), his parents took us out to a celebratory lunch. Next, they came over to his place for Memorial Day. Then they started inviting me along when they picked him up to spend a weekend in the country at their house. His folks are just plain country folks, not stuck-up snobs like my sister’s MIL, so we hit it off great.
B/f and I moved in together in April of this year. His parents are the greatest and I like them much-of-a-muchly. I just make it a point never to discuss politics or religion with them.
I guess my situation is a bit weird, but I have never met my MIL and I only met my FIL at my (ex) husbands funeral.
Mark had ‘divorced’ his parents when he was about 15, and we met when we were 20. While I had nagged him constantly to try to reconcile with them while we were married, (if for no other reason than to give the kids some grandparents!) he would not hear of it.
When he died, I contacted the MIL and the FIL (who are both married to new partners) but the MIL refused to come to the funeral. :rolleyes: And I haven’t seen the FIL since. Some people are VERY strange.
I can’t pinpoint my first time meeting my IL’s, as I was entirely one-sided. The reason for this is the my family and my wife’s family both attended the same church since before I was born. It’s entirely possible that my IL’s first encountered me at my baptism. So I’ve kind of always vaguely known who they were. Even though I was out of contact with my (future) wife for several years between when we left that church and when I ran into her again, it was all very comfortable. Same house, same FIL (MIL passes away in the intervening years), same bratty little sister, same wonderful princesskim:)
