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This is actually how my fiance and I developed our relationship, especially the first year or so...we'd spend time together with our families. We'd help my brother work on his bicycle, or we'd help his mom with her gardening, things like that. The other was always invited for family gatherings or even just Sunday dinner at home. As a result, there was no "getting to know the inlaws" period...his family already knows me very well, and vice versa.

This just sort of came naturally to us. With the right kind of boy dating a girl, it is still quite possible to do things this way. We were 19 and 20 when we started dating, but it would work nicely with the older teen who is still living at home.

Those are very encouraging stories. We feel that if a person doesn't (pretty much) enjoy participating in our family life, then they're not the sort of person our son or daughter would be happy with. So often people will get married to someone who seems wonderful (and maybe he or she is, objectively) but then they find that they don't like "real life" together.