Meet the Parents~Soceraphobia

I am afraid of the wedded life. I simply could not picture myself wearing a wedding dress or walking down the aisle of the church. Let me explain my case.

The wedded life is not the concentration of my fear. Well, as a girl, as a female specimen, I should as well know that giving birth is one hell of a pain in the ass. Well, not exactly the ass. Anyway, I am not as much afraid of that. And the honeymoon night, oh hell, I am definitely not afraid of that. I am very much anticipating that. But not the actual thing. This looks like this is going nowhere. Just bear with me. I am not afraid of sharing my room, or changing in front of a guy whom I’ve know not even more than half of my age by that time, and spend the rest of my damned life with him. I am not afraid that my significant other has a more than 9 months of pregnancy for at least a decade. What I am afraid of is meeting the parents-in-law.

I have this fear of meeting the parents-in-law, or socerophobia. This has been an unknown fear residing within me. If I have that fear, surely, there is a connecting stimulus. This has been triggered by unprecedented events in my youth. Well, not me of course. I haven’t reached the legal marrying age at that time. And with hell strict parents that I have, I wouldn’t have a love life until after college. This event, which has involved men chasing one another with ‘bolos’ or this huge knives, caused an unnoticeable imprint at the back of my mind.

Putting that stimulus aside, another cause of this recent fear is the question: “What if my in-laws hate me, just like the monster-in-law movie?” Oh, surely it will be a hell of a married life. But that is too shallow for a reason. There will be the cultural, religious and expectations. Surely, that will be a hindrance.

There is one instance where I had this so called ‘date’ with a guy. And in less than an hour, he had already introduced me to almost all of his siblings. If I hadn’t said I need to be home, I could have met his mom. And by the gods, it was a very dreadful experience. It’s not like I want to or is expecting to meet his mom. It’s just that I felt caged and bound at that time. My heart was racing after he said, “I will introduce you to my mom, but she isn’t here yet.” Oh, hell, that was enough for me to go away. One, because it was too fast. Two, because I simply am not comfortable meeting parents yet. If we were just friends, that would be just fine. But heck, I just knew him for a month, and there goes meeting the parents!

I can’t imagine how my life would be with my in-laws. Oh dear.