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What did your parents think?

(97 Posts)
MissAdventure Tue 14-Jan-20 15:50:17

When they first met your husband/wife?
My mum always had a love/hate relationship with my ex.
Apparently he took great big steps all around her living room (one of her reasons!)

CraftyGranny Tue 14-Jan-20 17:47:18

My mum and stepdad really didn't like him. But eventually came to love him. Fifty years later he is now looking after my mum in heaven now - I hope!

Artdecogran Tue 14-Jan-20 17:52:28

My dad said ‘oh you’re the new flavour of the month then’. My dad was a stern disciplinarian of the Victorian variety, even though he was born in 1934. My flavour lasted for 40 years until 2018 when he died of cancer.

Kalu Tue 14-Jan-20 18:06:26

DH was my Mother’s blue eyed boy. DH in turn, adored my DM. I jokingly asked on occasion, whose Mother are you? ?

So lucky that SiL and I have the same relationship.

The sons we never had.

cornergran Tue 14-Jan-20 18:16:12

They got on well once they were used to each other, in fact I suspect a degree of relief in my parents after my previous boyfriend. When my Dad who rarely expressed an emotion knew he was dying he phoned to speak to Mr C, told him how much he loved him and what a good husband he was. Had us both in tears.

MissAdventure Tue 14-Jan-20 18:21:08

That's lovely.. and sad.

SirChenjin Tue 14-Jan-20 18:22:29

They were both very polite and welcoming considering the first time they met him was when we’d visited to tell them we were getting engaged - three months after meeting! They opened the champagne and were very happy for us, and they seemed to like him a lot.

CanadianGran Tue 14-Jan-20 18:31:28

My mother never met my DH until she came for the wedding. I moved to the west coast from central Canada, where i met DH.

Once here she admitted he was from a good family and was a nice young man with a steady trade. She wasn't one to throw praise about easily. I think she was happy that I 'landed on my feet".

BlueSky Tue 14-Jan-20 18:38:23

They tried hard to get on with him (Husband no1) but it was mission impossible due to his weird and erratic behaviour. But I was young and knew best so went ahead, married him and lived to regret it. They would have loved husband no2, sadly they died before I even met him.

Grandma70s Tue 14-Jan-20 18:42:18

They thought he was suitable for me, right sort of background and job. He was Australian, though, so I think they feared we would go to Australia (we didn’t). Although they liked him well enough, they wouldn’t have chosen him for me themselves, and my father, of course, didn’t really think he was good enough for me. Hardly anybody ever would have been!

BBbevan Tue 14-Jan-20 18:45:29

My mum was horrified. Bearing in mind we were art students in the 60s, DH had shoulder length hair, tight striped jeans. A leather waistcoat and knee high suede theatrical boots. They did get to love him though and quickly recognised his good qualities. Mum wasn’t too keen on walking out with me either. Fringe like Claudia Winkleman and enormous black jumper and ski pants. Plus a bag full of paintbrushes and pencils. We thought we were the bees knees . ??

ninathenana Tue 14-Jan-20 18:52:16

They liked him. Thought he was a cheeky cockney chap. Mum didn't like his swearing (his whole family freely used the f bomb) he soon learn't not to swear.

He and mum were close until the day she died. He would do anything for her after dad died.

MissAdventure Tue 14-Jan-20 18:53:11

smile
I suppose he gave them quite a surprise.

Hetty58 Tue 14-Jan-20 19:02:29

My mother disliked both my husbands (but she found fault with everyone). My father was so polite, I never really knew what he was thinking.

Charleygirl5 Tue 14-Jan-20 19:03:51

Nobody was really good enough to marry their daughter. They did appear to get on but I managed to keep both sets of parents apart.

My parents died in 1979, we divorced in 1988 and thank God they were not around because all I would have heard was "I told you so" and we knew it would not last".

Barmeyoldbat Tue 14-Jan-20 19:04:16

My mum never liked any of her sil

Scentia Tue 14-Jan-20 20:09:45

My whole family disliked my DH. He was divorced and very good looking, they said it won’t last 5 minutes he will be off with another women if he gets the chance. Funny that, out of 6 children we are the only ones still together after 30 years, he hates my family they have always tried to break us apart, they still do if I ever see them, which doesn’t happen very often!!!

BradfordLass72 Tue 14-Jan-20 20:35:22

My parents made it very clear they disliked him the very first time they ever met.
The reason? He was a Catholic. They never changed their minds.

They also disliked Jews, people of colour, and "foreigners" - none of whm they actually knew.

They didn't go to church and had no religious beliefs and in fact scorned mine when, as a teenager, I wanted to join a Baptist church.

My in-laws were warm, loving people who took to me, despite their disappointment that their son had chosen a non Catholic.
They never pressed me to convert and we had a good relationship all my married life.

ladymuck Tue 14-Jan-20 21:30:09

My father and my husband worked in the same place, and my father seemed to think well of him. However, he changed his opinion when we started dating and he got to know him properly.

grannyactivist Wed 15-Jan-20 01:52:23

My mother likes my husband enormously, but when she first met him she wondered (initially out loud) why on earth he married me when he could have married a girl of his own age who didn’t come with a ready made family. She has never ceased telling me how lucky I am that he’s stayed married to me (for 33 years). It really sets my husband’s teeth on edge that she is so genuinely puzzled about what he sees in me, but he’s a very kind man and understands that I have long since come to terms with it and he accepts that if I can cope with her attitude, he must too.

Willow500 Wed 15-Jan-20 08:05:44

As we were only 15 when we met they liked him and grew to love him as the son they never had. They weren't too pleased at my pregnancy at 16 but after we were married supported us wholeheartedly as did his parents. He was the first person to realise they needed support when they developed dementia and we both shared the burden of care for them in their final years.

Eglantine21 Wed 15-Jan-20 08:35:26

They liked him. Of course they did, they liked all my boyfriends.

My sister and I would often come home with the current boyfriends to find a collection of past boyfriends inhabiting the kitchen, stuffing themselves with dinner or cake, watching football en masse in the living room or carrying out odd jobs.

The most irritating thing was that the current boyfriends would drift off to join them........

Greyduster Wed 15-Jan-20 08:47:44

As someone who actually wanted to marry me, I think he was regarded as a bit of a curiosity, but the whole family liked him, my father particularly, as DH was in the same regiment as he had been during the war. I don’t think that any of them thought we would last five minutes!

Beechnut Wed 15-Jan-20 09:01:18

I would say despite everything mum liked him as she knitted jumpers for DH. She never knitted anything for her other sil.

DotMH1901 Wed 15-Jan-20 09:44:38

My Dad didn't like my husband as he thought he was too noisy (Alf had a loud laugh and he used to laugh a lot) and because he drank (Dad was a life long tee totaller). In fact, Dad came back to the house after getting Mum in the car on the day I got married and said' You don't have to marry him, I will go and tell him you've changed your mind?' Mum, mainly because it annoyed Dad so much, used to sing his praises.

Buzzkaue Wed 15-Jan-20 09:45:39

Didn’t like him as he was a “bloody foreigner ‘ over the years they loved him
More than their own sons .