Meet the In-Laws

"A few months ago, [my girlfriend] was like 'Okay, it's going well, so, now, uh, I should meet your parents'. 'Cause that's what people do, when a relationship is going well. They meet each other's parents. And I've never understood that. I've never been with my girlfriend and thought like, 'Oh, honey. Tonight is going great. But do you know what would make it perfect? Charles and Ellen Mulaney! Yeah, let's get them in the mix! We've been going pretty hot and heavy lately, I think it's time we bring in two older Catholic people.'"

— John Mulaney

A tense moment in any relationship is the moment of meeting your future in-laws, or introducing your love interest to your parents for the first time as the opinions of parents are powerful things. In many cultures, this is obligatory as a form of knowing and being close to each other's families. Everyone wants to make a good first impression in the face of possible disapproval and for this reason can be played for laughs or drama.

See also: Meeting-the-Parents Sequel

Related tropes: Obnoxious In-Laws, Love-Obstructing Parents, Dating What Daddy Hates. May result in If You Ever Hurt Her.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: While Rentarou had met some of his other girlfriends' parents before,^note He met Hakari's mother Hahari when he and the rest of the harem broke into their house to rescue Hakari, while Chiyo's father Hiro is his uncle, and they'd known each other for a long time. Chapter 74 is his first proper meeting, as Kusuri takes him home to meet her parents, who like her usually resemble eight-year-olds due to taking her immortality drug. It goes fairly well, although Kusuri's father isn't too happy that his daughter is dating someone who has fourteen other girlfriends. At the end of the chapter, he meets Kusuri's grandmother Yaku, who also looks eight years old thanks to the immortality drug - and turns out to be his sixteenth soulmate.
• During the field trip to the West in Boarding School Juliet, Romio makes plans to formally introduce himself to Juliet's parents (he already met Juliet's mother before, but that didn't give her a good first impression of him). Post-war tensions between their two countries aside, Romio is rather optimistic of the matter, even though other characters warn him repeatedly that it will go very, very wrong. Complicating matters further is that Turkish, Juliet's father, was in Romio's shoes before, having previously had a Secret Relationship with someone from an "enemy country", only to have his hopes shattered when the secret got out and he became a pariah. Turkish doesn't want Juliet to go through the same hardships as he did. And thus Turkish serves as the final major obstacle for the Official Couple when he finally shows up.
• In Girlfriend, Girlfriend, Naoya's mother and father finally come home after being away from their house for so long, allowing them to meet the two girls their son is dating and the two extra girls staying in their home. Predictably, they're both angry with the relationship, but they soon accept that he's dating Saki and Nagisa, although they still don't consider Mirika and Shino official girlfriends (yet).
• In I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School, Fuyuhiko's mom shows up to bring him his lunch while he's alone with Kanade. Though Kanade is nervous the whole time, desperately trying to make a good first impression and prevent her from finding out she's a delinquent, she turns out to be very supportive of their relationship.
• We get a flashback in chapter 7 of I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying to when Hajime met Kaoru's father. It went surprisingly well despite Hajime being a hardcore otaku, although Kaoru gets a Thousand-Yard Stare when she remembers it due to how embarrassing it was for her.
• Parodied in the Where Are They Now epilogue chapters of Love Lab, where it's Maki's dad that doesn't want to meet her boyfriend, which annoys her to no end, thinking he doesn't want to ackowledge their relationship. He actually just doesn't want to see his girl go just yet. Maki eventually tricks him into seeing her boyfriend, which is The Ace Yan, and before Yan's spotless school track record and him and Maki being obviously very happy together, Maki's father has no choice but to acknwledge him. But he still takes psychic damage seeing them calling each other by their first name.
  • Then there's Yan's parents, who are already shocked he managed to get a girlfriend, and upon seeing Maki and her polite attitude, are so happy they cry.
• Haru met Tsurezure's mother and older sister in chapter 30 of Ojojojo (although she was actually there to tutor him). She had talked to his older sister on the phone beforehand but they had assumed it was a prank call. Played for Laughs when Haru's father asks to meet Tsurezure, even though they already met before the Relationship Upgrade.
• Rent-A-Girlfriend.
  • Played for Drama with Mami. While protagonist Kazuya was happy enough with his first girlfriend Mami, Mami herself felt like he was rushing the relationship too much. Kazuya bringing her over to meet his parents was the straw that broke the camel's back, and she coldly breaks up with him for that among other things.
  • Near the start of the series, Chizuru meets Kazuya's parents and paternal grandmother, while Kazuya meets Chizuru's grandmother Sayuri (her only surviving relative who's still in her life). The problem is not that anyone in the Kinoshita family dislikes Chizuru or Sayuri dislikes Kazuya- in fact, everyone is thrilled at the relationship. The problem is that because everyone concerned is so excited, Kazuya finds it difficult to let them down by revealing that Chizuru is not actually his girlfriend.
• Space Patrol Luluco: Keiji tells Luluco that she still has to do this in order to give her the motivation to find Nova following his Heroic Sacrifice.
  Keiji: You're supposed to introduce your boyfriend to your dad, right?
• Summer Wars starts off with Natsuki bringing Kenji to meet her family. Although it's something of a variation because it's her extended family rather than her parents and not actually dating.
• Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!: Played around a bit between the two protagonists. Shinichi meets Hana's parents on separate occasions early on, though at the time they were not dating each other. Hana however does get to meet Shinichi's mom after they become an Official Couple.

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust:
  • It's mentioned in the passing in chapter 9 that Hikari was finally introducing Touji to her family. She probably would have done it sooner but she had been under quarantine ever since Shinji and Asuka got her out of Unit-03.
  • In a slightly less conventional example, Asuka and Shinji both meet each other's mothers during a cross-synch test in Chapter 10. Despite Kyoko's mental instability and Asuka viciously calling out Yui for all the crap she put Shinji through, it goes rather well.
• As Fate Would Have It has this happen thrice, with Yancy meeting Nate's parents on two separate occasions and Nate meeting Yancy's parents at the same time.
  • In Chapter 14, Yancy ends up meeting Nate's mom for the first time the morning after Yancy and Nate have had Their First Time. Naturally, the meeting is awkward at first, no thanks to Yancy being nude and in bed together with Nate. Thankfully for both of them, Mrs. Kyouhei is pretty chill, and comes to like Yancy immediately after finding out about her story.
  • Chapter 19 has Yancy meeting Mr. Kyouhei at the Kyouhei Residence in Aspertia City. It again turns awkward when Mrs. Kyouhei manages to tell her husband about the aforementioned first meeting between her and Yancy.
  • Chapter 17 has Nate being formally introduced to Yancy's parents. Thankfully, this meeting is cordial and not awkward.
• In the sequel of The Child of Love, Asuka talked Shinji into meeting her parents while they were talking about their future wedding. Shinji wasn't really keen on it (her parents had abused her as much as his father abused him), but she convinced him.
• A Crown of Stars: After Daniel brought them and their families to the Second Chances shelter, Hikari and Misato took advantage of the moment to introduce their respective significant others to their parents.
• A Diplomatic Visit:
  • A non-romantic version happens in chapter 3 of the sequel Diplomat at Large, when Rainbow Dash invites Scootaloo - her sister in all but blood - and her aunts over to meet her parents. Luckily, Windy Whistles and Bow Hot Hoof adore Scootaloo and happily accept she, Holiday and Lofty into the family.
  • Discussed in chapter 1 of the fourth story, The Diplomat's Life, when Princess Twilight reunites with the human Flash Sentry and warns him that her parents are here and, knowing about her crushing on him the first time they met, want to meet him. He's not sure if he should be glad or scared, and Twilight admits that she's not sure either. She also cautions him that if her brother was here, it would definitely be a "run for it" situation.
• Danny and Kara:
  • Chapter 8 has Kara meeting Jack and Maddie, appropriately titled "Kara meets the Fentons".
  • Chapter 10 has Danny going to Metropolis to meet the Kents, appropriately titled "Ghost Boy Meets The Man Of Steel Part 1".
• Chapter 6 of Dating a Team Magma Grunt has the titular Magma Grunt meeting Brendan's parents (it was entirely unplanned, Norman just happened to be passing by when the two of them were on a date and invited her over for dinner). Despite the very obvious age gap, his parents approve.
• In Hellsister Trilogy, Supergirl sets up a meeting between her adoptive parents and her new boyfriend, although Dev-Em isn't keen on meeting people who -he thinks- will want to murder him for daring to touch their little girl. The meeting is awkward, and Kara's adoptive parents don't like their daughter's suitor at all, but they'll put up with him for her sake.
  Kara: I'd like you to meet Mom and Dad.
  Dev-Em: Oh, capital. 'Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Zor-El, I'm the man who's boffing your daughter.' 'Good of you, Mr. Em. It's about time somebody did.'
• It's mentioned in passing in I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again! that it was a lot less awkward and confusing the second time that Sakura introduced her teammate-turned-enemy-turned-teammate-turned-boyfriend-turned-husband-turned-teammate-turned-boyfriend Sasuke to her parents.
• The Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Alternate Universe Fic Meet Our Mothers has Kasumi's mothers Kanata and Emma finding out she has a new partner, Shizuku, and insist on inviting her for dinner to get to know her. That evening, they also get an impromptu meeting with their other daughter Rina's girlfriend Ai, who came because their pet cat was missing Rina.
• MGLN Crisis ends with Nanoha introducing her parents to her boyfriend, girlfriend, and daughter (although they already know the former two). Poor Momoko faints from shock.
• One Year has four examples- two for Yu and Yukiko, and two for Kanji and Naoto.
  • At the end of July, Yu meets Yukiko's parents, who'd known about his relationship with her for some time, even though Yukiko only recently told them about it. While Yukiko is somewhat nervous, the Amagis strongly approve of Yu, even if they conclude that it's too soon for him to tie the knot.
  • In September, Naoto meets Kanji's mother. The meeting largely goes well, although Kanji's mother ends up asking Naoto some difficult questions about her future plans.
  • In November, Kanji meets Naoto's grandfather. While the elder Shirogane quickly realizes that Kanji isn't detective material, and Kanji isn't looking forward to asking him for Naoto's hand in marriage, he concedes that the outcome was a good one.
  • On Christmas Eve, Yukiko meets Yu's parents. This meeting is the most difficult of the four, since Yu's parents believe in him putting his education first and making whatever sacrifices are necessary for a better future- even his relationship with Yukiko, if necessary. After the meeting ends, they still hold this belief, but despite that, they come to like Yukiko.
• In chapter 7 of The Second Try, Shinji got to talk to his wife's stepmother for first time.
• The Stargate SG-1/Battlestar Galactica (2003) crossover "Seven" features a variation of this; when Daniel Jackson (the "lost" Number Seven Cylon) meets Six on Caprica and learns of her relationship with Baltar, he immediately expresses disapproval of his "sister's" love interest in his role as her "brother".
• Son of the Sannin:
  • In Chapter 51, Temari asks Shikamaru when he's going to take her to meet his parents. Meanwhile, he's trying very hard to forget his own first encounter with Rasa, which according to Kankuro was hilarious.
  • Chapter 76 reveals Fu has been staying with the Aburame Clan. She seems to be getting along with them just fine.
• to Überwald and (hopefully) back again: Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Otto von Chriek brings his human fiancés William de Worde and Sacharissa Cripslock to Überwald to meet his vampire family for the first time. His vampire parents have no problem with the polyamory, but are not pleased that their son plans to marry humans.
• The Wrong Reflection's first chapter has Eleya introduce her operations officer-slash-boyfriend Gaarra to her family while attending her sister's wedding. Her parents are mildly annoyed that Eleya isn't planning to marry Gaarra anytime soon (it's because they're already in violation of fraternization rules as a commanding officer loving one of her senior staff).
• In the Discworld, the essentially gentle and unworldly Wizard Ponder Stibbons is allowed a girlfriend. She's an Assassin and is a product of a border country in Howondaland where there are occassional disagreements with the neighbours over the figurative garden fence. He discovers her family fit the picture of the Amoral Afrikaner. His first encounter with Papa Wolf and Mama Bear is even more terrifying than the border war he has just, unwillingly, been drawn into at her side. Ponder adapts, and realizes his in-laws are actually quite well disposed towards him. The alternative, he realizes, would be unspeakable. Read more in the works of A.A. Pessimal.

Film — Animated

• Shrek 2 is about Shrek meeting Fiona's parents who aren't very happy about their daughter marrying an ogre. Her mother tries to accept it but her father is less than open minded, he also secretly promised the Fairy Godmother Fiona would marry her son Prince Charming to repay her for making him human.

Film — Live-Action

• In 40 Carats, Ann meets the unhappily married parents of her much-younger fiancé Peter. It goes very badly - Peter's father tears into the relationship and almost convinces Ann to break up with Peter.
• In Beau Jest, a young Jewish woman is dating a gentile man. She told her parents, who dislike him, that she would break up with him. So when her parents finally convince her to bring her new boyfriend to a family dinner, she hires an actor to play the role of her boyfriend. The problem? He isn't Jewish either, even though his name is Bob Schroeder. So the guy has to pretend to be Jewish, even though his only experience with Judaism was playing a role in a production of Fiddler on the Roof. In the end, though, after everything is revealed, it turns out her parents never had a problem with her dating gentiles. It was just that her previous boyfriend reminded them of a cousin they didn't like. Naturally, she ends up breaking off her relationship and starting to date Bob for real, and he even seriously considers converting, having grown to like Jewish culture.
• Much like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Get Out (2017) is about a white woman bringing her black boyfriend to her white parents and all of the awkwardness involved. It then gets much more horrifying.
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: A white woman brings home her black fiancée to meet her parents. His parents later show up as well. The film came out in 1967, when the Supreme Court had only recently struck down the South (and California's) anti-miscegenation laws in Loving v. Virginia The races are flipped in the 2005 remake, Guess Who, with a black woman bringing her white fiancée to meet her parents.
• I'm Thinking of Ending Things has this as its premise. Jake is bringing his new girlfriend home to meet his parents. The dinner that proceeds is increasingly awkward and surreal.
• The In-Laws (1979) has mild-mannered dentist Sheldon Kornpett meet his daughter's fiance's father, crazed CIA agent Vince Ricardo, who soon involves him in Central American hanky-panky. On seeing a picture from JFK inscribed "At least we tried":
  Vince: That was for the Bay of Pigs.
  Shelldon: You were involved in the Bay of Pigs!?!
  Vince: It was my idea.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • A major subplot of Thor: The Dark World is Jane Foster of Earth meeting Thor's parents, Odin and Frigga of Asgard. It's only slightly complicated by the fact that Asgardians are gods of Norse Mythology and that any relationship Thor and Jane could have is a Mayfly–December Romance; the real problem is why he brought her to Asgard in the first place.
    Odin: She does not belong here in Asgard any more than a goat belongs at a banquet table!
    Jane Foster: Did he just...? [outraged] Who do you think you are?
    Odin: I am Odin. King of Asgard. Protector of the Nine Realms.
    Jane Foster: [chastened] Oh. Well I'm...
    Odin: I know very well who you are, Jane Foster.
    Jane Foster: [to Thor] You told your dad about me?
  • In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker goes to pick up Liz for the homecoming dance and meets her father at the same time. The scene quickly turns somber and then terrifying when it's revealed that Liz's dad is the the Vulture who then figures out Peter is Spiderman and proceeds to quietly threaten him.
  • Avengers: Infinity War: Parodied. Thanos the Mad Titan is a galactic conqueror and his "children" are kidnapped members of species he has culled. When Thanos is in the process of capturing his favorite daughter, Gamora, he meets Peter Quill, and treats it like a perfectly ordinary Meet The In-laws situation.
    Thanos: Ah. The boyfriend.
    Quill: I like to think of myself as a Titan-killing, long-term booty call.
  • Peter even manages to win Thanos's approval ("I like him"), but seeing as how Thanos is trying to wipe out half of all life in the universe, it doesn't exactly make Peter feel better.
• Meet the Parents. The first movie is about Greg Focker meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time and trying to make a good enough impression to get their blessing to propose to her. The sequel, Meet The Fockers, flips things around to show Pam and her parents meeting Greg's Bourgeois Bohemian parents.
• Midway through Mr. Baseball, Jack Elliot's Japanese girlfriend Hiroko takes him to dinner with her parents. In a twist on the Introduction by Hookup, Hiroko's father turns out to be Uchiyama, Jack's team manager. Jack and Uchiyama both realize they've been set up.
• Passages: After Tomas knocks up his girlfriend Agathe, he meets her parents, who are dismissive of him and don't think he will be a good father to Agathe's baby. Agathe eventually comes to agree with them and has an abortion.
• In We Too Together, Rob invites both his girlfriend Gabriela and his father Carl to his birthday lunch. The two take an instant dislike to each other - Carl is convinced that Gabriela will never love Rob and will inevitably break his heart, while Gabriela is a pacifist who hates how Carl is constantly trying to pressure Rob into a military career.

Literature

• The Beginning After the End: After Arthur gets hospitalized following him saving Tessia during their first day of class at Xyrus Academy, his family comes to visit him in the infirmary. At the same time, Tessia and her family come to visit Arthur as well, causing them to meet his family for the first time. Tessia's parents are pleased to meet the parents of the boy who has twice saved the life of their daughter. Arthur's parents immediately take a fancy to Tessia, with his mother Alice telling her that she is glad her son "has someone responsible like [her] by his side now and in the future}, causing her to blush with embarrassment. In response to that, Tessia's grandfather Virion jokingly states the possibility of Arthur becoming his grandson-in-law, which causes her to become even more embarrassed.
• Charly: Sam learns through a mutual friend that Charly has returned to town with a boyfriend from back East. It's implied to be for this reason.
• Cradle Series:
  • The Winter Sage was the fiance of Yerin's master, the Sword Sage. To Yerin's intense annoyance, she clearly sees Yerin as her daughter. To Yerin's even more intense annoyance, when she first meets Lindon she's clearly treating him as a prospective suitor who she's not sure is good enough for her daughter. Lindon tries to be polite, while Yerin just shoves her away.
  • When they finally return to Sacred Valley, Yerin meets Lindon's family. Despite some initial missteps where they think Yerin is his master, his mother and sister soon realize there's a romance going on (his father remains oblivious). Their questions shift noticeably, and Yerin has to awkwardly explain what exactly she sees in Lindon. She splits her time between singing Lindon's praises and trying not to boast about her own accomplishments.
• Cut and Run: Despite being a thriller/mystery series half the time, this is essentially the plot to Stars & Stripes. While Zane meets Ty's family in book 2 of the series, book 6 is where Ty's grandfather inadvertently outs them as a couple and Ty's mother welcomes Zane into the family. Zane initially visits his estranged parents while his father is recovering from an injury, but Ty comes along later and starts off this plot with Zane's parents. They aren't planning to have it be this at first, but after Zane comes out to his father the rest of the book shows how his family, their ranch hands, and the locals react to Ty being there.
• Earth's Children: Jondalar is finally able to introduce his lover and bride-to-be Ayla to his family in the fifth book, something both of them have been anticipating and worrying about for a number of years (the couple first met and got together about two years earlier when Jondalar was on an extended vacation, and had to walk all the way across Europe to reach Jondalar's homeland), especially as they may not react well to Ayla being raised by the Clan (Jondalar's people tend to be prejudiced against the Clan and believe them to be dumb animals). Fortunately, although his family are surprised to learn of Ayla's origins, they're not put-off by it and quickly warm up to her.
• InCryptid:
  • No Place Like Home: Jonathan brings Frances home with him to Buckley to meet his parents and the rest of the Aeslin colony. However, they weren't together yet (though Everyone Can See It). Notably, Jonathan's mother Enid tells Fran that she worries her son isn't good enough for her, rather than the other way around.
  • My Last Name: Verity brings Dominic to meet her parents and convince them not to kill him.
  • Pocket Apocalypse: Alex travels to Australia to help with a werewolf problem, and meets Shelby's family.
  • Black as Blood: Istas and Ryan fly across the country to meet Ryan's family.
• In The Key to Charlotte, Charlotte introduces Zakaria to her parents. They like him at first, until they realize he's romantically interested in Charlotte. Then they assume he just wants to take advantage of her, like every other boy who has ever shown interest in Charlotte.
• In Love Over Gold, Diane comes out as gay to her parents by introducing her girlfriend Katrien first to her father, then to her mother. Diane's dad already knows from reading about one of her dates with Katrien in a Dutch tabloid. Her mum at first thinks Diane is going to break really horrible news to her, and is relieved when she tells her she's gay. Both parents like Katrien and are completely accepting of her and Diane.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • In X-Wing: The Bacta War, Corran Horn is introduced to girlfriend Mirax Terrik's father Booster when they inadvertently run into each other on Tatooine while the Rogues are trying to get supplies to go to war with Ysanne Isard. Booster is understandably furious that his daughter is dating the son of the man who once put him in prison (he later accepts them getting married but never really warms up to Corran).
• The Tuning Station: When Ted first met Susan's parents, her father told him the story of how his grandfather converted to Christianity in Taiwan despite Christianity being illegal at the time, and said that he strongly disapproved of her decision to date an atheist but would never prevent her from making her own choices.
• Vorkosigan Saga: The first half of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is largely about Tej meeting Ivan's family, starting with disreputable cousin Byerly and ending with Ivan's stepbrother, Emperor Gregor. The second half is largely about Ivan meeting Tej's family, after they turn out not to be dead after all.

Live-Action TV

• Bones
  • Arastoo is terrified because his parents are old school and somewhat conservative and she’s Black, non-Muslim and a coroner. He argues with Cam and she’s reluctant to go. She does, but Arastoo thinks they’re rejecting her and they storm off before even eating. Fortunately they stop by later on to tell him they do accept Cam.
  • Hodgins was terrified of meeting Angela’s dad. But then, it *is* Billy Gibbons, so maybe not too surprising. Hodgins always acts scared of him even after marrying her.
• Cheers:
  • "Diane Meets Mom" is about Diane meeting Frasier's mom. She's initially terrified that Hester Crane will disapprove of her, trying to run out on the dinner before it begins, but despite dominating the conversation, things seem to go well... until Hester takes advantage of Frasier's absence to tell Diane "stop seeing my son, or God as my witness, I will kill you."
  • "Little Carla Happy At Last" has Carla meet her boyfriend Eddie's mother, who initially assumes Rebecca is Carla, and is so disappointed when informed otherwise that she tries insisting her son's joking. When it finally sinks in otherwise, she storms out, announcing in angry French that she refuses to let her son marry "some pregnant hussy".
  • Much later on in the series, Woody has to meet his girlfriend Kelly's family (having already met her father, who despises him). Kelly's mom tries to seduce him, repeatedly, and Kelly's too ditzy to notice. A later episode has Woody meeting her grandmother, after having overworked himself at the bar and a gravedigger's job, leading to him believing Kelly's gran is someone he helped bury the night before and having a freak-out. It turns out she is, having arranged the whole thing to mess with Woody. But she actually likes him for trying to confront her about it.
• On Crash Landing on You: When Se-ri's stepmom meets with Jeong-hyuk, the hostile variation of this trope is discussed by Genre Savvy Joo-mok, who says that in K-dramas, the love interest's parents will either throw water at their faces or bribe them to break up. They are surprised when Jeong-yeon instead expresses her approval and support.
• In Friends, Phoebe meets her boyfriend Mike's parents for the first time and initially acts very posh around them to impress them. After Mike encourages her to be herself, she horrifies them with stories how she spent her teenage years living on the streets after her stepfather went to prison and her mother killed herself.
  • When Ross meets Rachel's father, it doesn't go so well — Rachel's dad catches Ross trying to supplement the miserly tip he left at the restaurant, which doesn't endear Ross to him. Rachel arranges a breakfast for them the next day so they can take another shot at it, and it works, as Ross and Rachel's father bond by mocking Rachel's various life choices.
  • Ross struggles with this again in season six when he meets Elizabeth's father. Paul is already biased against Ross before they even meet because he doesn't approve of their Teacher/Student Romance, and nearly everything Ross says inadvertently insults Paul. Despite Paul's disapproval, Elizabeth refuses to break up with Ross.
• One episode of Gilmore Girls has Rory taking Dean to Friday night dinner to meet her grandparents. However, things start going downhill when Richard starts pumping him about his grades and college plans.
  • Much later in season 5, Logan invites Rory to meet his family over dinner to celebrate his sister's engagement. However, things go downhill when they criticize Rory saying she isn't cut out to be in their family.
• How I Met Your Mother's first Thanksgiving Episode is all about Lily meeting Marshall's family (who are all giants like him, making Marshall the runt in the family) at Minnesota for Thanksgiving. Tension arises when they start pressuring Lily to be like them, like having her wear an apron in the kitchen that says "Mrs. Eriksen"^note Lily choosing to keep her name as it is, suggesting that Marshall and Lily move to Minnesota after their wedding, and, to Lily's horror, finding out that Eriksen babies are born as large as the turkey.
  • A season two episode has Robin (who is currently dating Ted) meeting Ted's parents. Ted warns her that his mother always pesters his other girlfriends on when they plan on having children. However, Ted's mother instead encourages her to pursue her career, leading Robin to assume she does not like her. It turns out that Ted's mother simply doesn't want Robin to make the mistake of marrying too young as she did with Ted's father, who Ted doesn't know she recently divorced from. Ted's mom and dad actually love Robin, a fact which makes her so proud she can't even hide it while Ted is reeling from the revelation of his parents' divorce.
  • Later in season eight, Barney meets Robin's father after they got engaged and becomes terrified of him, because Robin's father is very strict and imposes high demands on Barney like forcing him to dye his hair black and trying to make him shoot a rabbit that Barney recently adopted.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "In Throes of Increasing Wonder...", it's played with when Louis de Pointe du Lac brings Lestat de Lioncourt to his family home for dinner. The audience knows these two are future lovers. The du Lacs, and even Louis himself, think this is just Louis' new friend. Lestat already views this man as his eternal "husband" and is delighted Louis is inviting him to partake in a couple-like activity. Paul seems oddly astute, playing the classic protective brother role and asking Lestat what his intentions with his brother are.
• On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 23 sees Carisi bring Rollins home to meet his Ma, and it's equal parts adorable and hilarious. Serafina is just as nervous to meet Amanda as the other way around and spends the evening trying but failing not to be Amazingly Embarrassing Parents. Sonny is a Through His Stomach partner and a Parental Substitute to Amanda's girls, but according to his mother, he's a terrible cook and the first time he babysat for the neighbors, he dropped the baby on his head. Rollins does get the in-law stamp of approval though, which she gloats about later.
• NUMB3RS:
  • The season four episode Pay for Play Charlie goes to meet Amita's parents, which stresses him out. Even though things do get awkward, Amita's parents do eventually accept him after meeting him.
• Parks and Recreation:
  • Leslie hosts a party to celebrate her and Ben getting engaged. Things go swimmingly at first... until Ben's divorced parents (plus his dad's new wife, who also happens to be the mother of his future half-brother) show up. Things get tense at many points throughout the episode, forcing the duo to put their foot down and demand that they put their differences aside until the wedding is over. Later in that series, the duo just decide to get married spontaneously, citing the absence of their parents as a plus.
  • This happens when Andy meets April's parents at their wedding, although things go surprisingly well and the drama's more or less non-existent.
• Schitt's Creek: David throws a surprise party for his boyfriend Patrick and invites Patrick's parents, not realizing that the out-and-proud-in-the-town Patrick has not come out to his parents. This leads to Patrick's Coming-Out Story and thankfully ends up with Patrick's parents being loving and supportive, if a little hurt that Patrick was afraid to tell them. Plus, they really like David and love that he makes their son happy.
• Seinfeld:
  • "The Rye" revolves around the complications that result from George's cranky lower-middle-class New Yorker parents meeting his fiancée Susan's wealthy, stuck-up mother and father. Not only does the dinner itself go about as well as you expect, a feud between the families ensues after Frank and Estelle, who brought a loaf of rye bread to the dinner, take it home with them after the Rosses fail to serve it. Meanwhile the Costanzas are disgruntled because Susan's parents didn't have coffee cake.
    George: So they didn't give you a piece of cake. Big deal!
    Estelle: It is a big deal. You're supposed to serve cake after a meal. I'm sorry. It's impolite.
    Frank: Not impolite...it's stupid, that's what it is. You gotta be stupid to do something like that!
    Estelle: Your father's absolutely right. We're sitting there like idiots drinking coffee without a piece of cake!
  • In "The Calzone," a male friend of Elaine's loses a bet he makes with her about actors in Star Wars, meaning that he owes her dinner. Jerry thinks that he purposely made a losing bet so that he could take Elaine on a date without asking her out. Elaine is skeptical until the guy, who has arranged another dinner with her under a non-romantic pretext, brings his parents along to meet her.
• Subverted in the finale of Sense8. When Mun tells Diego that Sun brought him to meet her family, Diego responds that it must be getting serious between them. Since Sun's only remaining family is her treacherous brother in prison, Mun is referring to her beloved dog.
• Soap: Danny brings home his fiancées to meet his parents twice; both times it goes badly. The first time he's engaged to The Don's bratty daughter and they hate each other. The second time she's black (Danny and his parents are white) and much tension ensues. When her parents come over to meet the Campbells, the mothers agree that it's a horrible idea for the two of them to get married, and ultimately Polly (the fiancée in question) breaks it off with Danny.

Music

• Kim Petras: "Meet the Parents" is about a woman who is reluctant for her partner to meet each other's parents, as she doesn't want a serious relationship.

Radio

• Our Miss Brooks:
  • Miss Brooks first meets Mr. Boynton's parents in the radio episode "Mr. Boynton's Parents". Unfortunately, when Miss Brooks first meets them she's helping landlady Mrs. Davis clean the house, so she, in her own words, looks "like a rat drowning in a Quonset Hut". Once Miss Brooks cleans up, she makes a better impression. Mr. Boynton brags about how gay and youthful the kids think Miss Brooks is. Alas, Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin arrive to present Miss Brooks with a special reward for being their "Mother away from Mother".
  • Miss Brooks has occasional, indirect, trouble from Mr. Boynton's parents. Usually, it's Boynton's mother being overprotective or Boynton going to visit his parents instead of spending a vacation with Miss Brooks (i.e. "Magic Christmas Tree")
  • By the time of The Movie Grand Finale, Mr. Boynton's father had passed away. to Miss Brooks surprise, Mrs. Davis eventually conspires with Mrs. Boynton to have Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton Happily Married

Theatre

• The premise of Beau Jest is that Sarah's family is pressuring her to introduce them to the nice Jewish doctor she's dating. Except that he's fictional, so she hires an actor to portray him. Hilarity Ensues.

Video Games

• Mass Effect: Andromeda: After Jaal's Loyalty Mission, he takes Ryder to meet his family, his trained military commando true (birth) mother included (angara have multiple mothers due to their societal norms). This happens regardless of whether Jaal is romanced or not, but if he is, his mother takes a shine to Ryder, for which Jaal is sorry.
  Jaal: My mother is going to love you. ... sorry.

Web Animation

• Manga Rabbit HoméNoba: While Jurek dated Mabel after being dumped by Tina, she asks him to visit her mother with her at the hospital. The woman at first doesn't see him as fit to marry Mabel, so she asked him three things he knew about Mabel. After answering all three, she allows them to date.

Webcomics

• The DeviantArt comic Meet zah Marios made by artist Nintendrawer, is all about Luigi taking Daisy to meet his parents. The previous comic I'd like you to meet... had an accidental example when Daisy's parents visit her house right during her first date with Luigi, and the poor plumber gets off with the wrong foot with Daisy's father.
• There was a story arc in Sandra and Woo where Larisa went over to dinner at Landon's place for the first time. Landon's religious mother was convinced that she was either a witch or a succubus destined to give birth to the Anti-Christ. On the other hand, his father got along with her perfectly. Fortunately, his mother isn't an issue anymore since they got divorced and the father has custody.
• In Savestate, Riley woke up on Christmas morning, after spending the night at Kade (her boyfriend) and Nicole's (Kade's sister) house playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with both of them and Rick, and suddenly found herself talking to Kade's mother, whom she'd not yet met.
  Kade: It was my parents' turn to spend Christmas here.
  Riley: And you didn't think meeting your mom on Christmas would be weird?
  Rick: It's not weird. She made pancakes.
• Tripping Over You: Milo first meets his boyfriend Liam's father when they're getting ready to move in together, soon after Liam comes out. Milo nearly strangles himself with his tie out of nerves before Liam explains that his father is just as anxious for Milo's approval.
  Milo: Wait, what?
  Liam: He's been worrying about this for days. I've actually seen him prep less for some of his [court] cases.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: The first of act of "Broke His Crown" has a similar setup meant to evoke this trope. Marceline invites Princess Bubblegum, who is implied to be her ex-girlfriend, to come with her to have dinner at Ice King's castle, who is himself functionally Marcy's foster parent.
• Played for drama in The Owl House "King's Tide", though more out of circumstance than character interactions. Luz and her friends end up stranded on Earth after going through absolute hell and trudge their way to her house in the rain. When Camila opens the door, Amity's body language suggests that she's trying to look as presentable as possible despite the trauma she and the others just went through so she can make a good first impression on her girlfriend's mother. The actual introduction (which also doubles as Luz officially coming out as bisexual to her mother) during the following episode's Time-Passes Montage goes a lot better, with Camila cheerfully pulling both girls into a hug.
• Star Wars Rebels: In "Homecoming", when Kanan meets the father of Hera, his maybe/maybe not wife/girlfriend/whatever, he's so nervous he mixes up the names of his own crew members. They quickly hit it off... which causes friction between Kanan and Hera, since Hera still hates her father.
• While it's kept to subtext, the Star Wars Resistance episode "From Beneath" is centered on Orka meeting Flix's family. They're not too impressed at first, but as soon as Orka starts yelling at them to mount a rescue they immediately approve.

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