The perfect time to wait before introducing a new partner to your family is 20 weeks, according to new research. Women prefer to hold off for longer – 22 weeks – while men dive in at 19 weeks.
The survey – part of Amazon’s Chatterbox series, created to provide a barometer of opinions from one of the UK’s most diverse workforces – shows 15% should wait a whole year, while 10% said they would never introduce a new partner to their family. The research also shows the older you are, the less time you take to introduce your family to your new partner. Those over-55 waited just 15 weeks – six weeks less than the 21 weeks taken by Gen Z.
People in Exeter wait the longest at seven months, while Cardiff is in a hurry, at barely three months. Amazon employee Ollie Price, 29, who met his now-fiancee Erika, 28, at the company’s Bolton fulfilment centre was left shocked after her parents gatecrashed their first date on Valentine’s Day - turning up unannounced.
“I went to pick her up for dinner from her parents’ house, and they opened the door. To my horror, they were wearing their coats and shoes. It clicked – they had invited themselves to dinner,” he said.
“Erika’s face was everything I needed to know. She clearly had no idea this was going to happen and felt so bad. Given the first date, I started to think I was running some sort of gauntlet.”
As millions of people head out on Valentine’s Day dates this week, Amazon employees also reveal the dodgiest things to look out for on a date – with having a bad smell topping the list for women (37%) and foul manners (34%) for men.
Third on the ick list for Amazon workers was someone eating with their mouth open. Using too many emojis when texting (you know who you are) was more irksome than being badly dressed, your date looking like a relative or possessing poor grammar.
But finding out your date looks like a family member was seven times more problematic for people from midlands towns Coventry, Leicester and Derby – where one in 14 (7%) people said it was their biggest turn off – compared to London where one in 100 said the same.
Being rude to waiting or bar staff – according to women – is the worst thing a partner can do on a date (50%), worse than someone not turning up at all (39%) or the wrong person appearing instead (33%).
Women also hate their partners talking about themselves non–stop – 36% said this would ruin their date versus only 25% of men.
When it comes to making a good impression, what you pick to eat is important, too. Three in 10 people (29%) said avoiding very spicy food was important for the sake of decorum, while 21% said that smelly tinned fish should be off the menu entirely for date nights.
Messy burgers are a danger zone for dates, too, with 12% saying they are the worst thing to order.
Watch the series here: www.amazonchatterbox.co.uk.
