Recently my mother and father met my boyfriend of a year and a half for the second time.  The first time they met was just past our first year anniversary, my family, my boyfriend and I met in a restaurant so we could eat dinner and flee if it became too uncomfortable.  It was uncomfortable, but we got through it.  Next meeting.  After being extremely busy for a few months and being frustrated that they hadn’t invited him over to their house, I arranged a Sunday dinner for their second meeting to be served at my house.  It was actually more uncomfortable than the first time.  There was no restaurant, no waiter, and no menu to distract us.  Restaurants provide so much cover in awkward situations.  At my house they practically demanded to be plied with wine.
    I had thought that we were making progress.  They didn’t react negatively when they found out my BF and I were going to move in together.  My mother bluntly asked about it after she found out from my landlord that I was getting a new housemate in September.  She didn’t argue or say anything really.  This is from the women who told me, at age 13, that they wouldn’t pay for my wedding if I lived with the girl I was going to marry before marriage (at least that will never happen.)  My sister and my cousin both wanted to, but didn’t live with their future husbands because of this threat.
    The progress was really me mentioning my BF in front of them instead of sidestepping any topic that concerned him and them listening to me talk about him and, most importantly, asking him to Easter Brunch.  It really made me happy that they invited him to brunch.  It really involves him in a family activity, denotes a sort of acceptance.
    Then came our conversation over Sunday dinner.
    “The Junes are coming to brunch and they don’t know about Tim,” my mother says.
    “Oh,” I saying in a dark knowing voice, “and you want me to tell them.”
    “No, you can say he is your friend.  You know, be discreet.”
    “Discreet.”
    I am not a family embarrassment and I don’t need to hide myself or my boyfriend from anyone.  I was hoping my family felt the same way.  Part of me wants to be dramatic, a character flaw or career asset of mine, and say that if we have to be discreet we can go somewhere else for brunch and not burden.  A more sober part of me says this is progress and I should be happy with what I get and in a few more years it won’t be a big deal.
    Would you be discreet?