So, you’re going home to meet the parents. Assuming your significant other’s parents are a little less intense than Robert De Niro in the movie Meet the Parents, you shouldn’t have to worry too much. However, even so, meeting your boyfriend or girlfriend’s parents is always nerve-wracking because you desperately want them to like you. We’ve all been there. Here are some tips – bring a gift, laugh at their jokes, ask to see baby pictures, and most importantly, dress the part!
So, how do you dress the part, exactly? The number one rule is to be yourself. What I’m saying is, don’t wear a pink polo and boat shoes if you’d normally be wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt with combat boots. You don’t want to give the impression that you are someone else just to please the parents because then they’re not really meeting you, right? That being said, it never hurts to clean up a little bit. Take a shower, brush your hair and maybe even iron your shirt.
If you follow this Fashionisto’s lead, you could pull off the perfect mix of casual and put-together. He pairs a clean-cut button-down shirt with casual gray jeans and his favorite sneakers. To me, this outfit is perfect because he looks exactly like a guy who hits all the boxes on Mom’s checklist: handsome, smart, stylish and a lot of fun. While a button-down shirt could come off as too formal, the jeans and sneakers work to downplay the outfit and also show a bit of his personality.
One Simple Change: If you happen to be meeting the parents at a more formal event, simply swap the sneakers for a nice pair of leather dress shoes and you’ll be good to go.
