Lockdown lessons: isolating with your boyfriend’s family

RIP privacy.


Moving into your boyfriend’s family home for the foreseeable future is hard, especially when you don’t know when you’ll see your own family next and you barely know his siblings. You can guarantee, however, that when lockdown ends, you’ll have a whole new relationship with him and his family.

Weird Quirks

By the time lockdown is over, you’ll know every single one of his weird quirks – whether he’s obsessed with putting his dinners in bread (lasagne sandwich anyone?) or drowning every. single. food. he eats in ketchup. Meal times are definitely the worst part of the day: the combo of weird eating habits and loud chewing ensure that.

Then, there’s a whole new language to learn: the new household lingo may feel alien, especially if you hear ‘pass the ketchy’ at the dinner table. Hard as you try not to, you’ll end up adopting the family dialect after 2 months.

Sharing is Caring

Now you’re always together, doing the same things: brushing your teeth together, writing essays together. There’s no chance of personal space. You question whether this is even an issue, since you’re basically becoming the same person now, but there are a few boundaries: he’ll attempt to force you to do his workout routine with him (that’s a definite no) and he won’t watch Twilight with you.

One thing you will learn is that he hates sharing food. Fair enough, but you’re expected to share your snacks with him, either that or he’ll sniff them out like a hound. The refusal to share knows no bounds; he’ll sneak away whilst you’re sleeping for midnight snacks to avoid sharing his goodies.

Sharing a bed has never been comfy, but as someone who is used to sleeping solo at uni, sharing a bed every night for the last 2 months is starting to make you wonder if you’ll end up of those couples who sleep in separate beds. He starfishes every night, steals the covers and then turns the fan on because he’s too hot while you’re frozen on the edge.

However, there is an upside to having to share EVERYTHING, because this means that his pets are now also your pets.

You’ll get to know his family very quickly

After weeks of isolation, witnessing lockdown breakdowns and being confined to the same house 24/7, you’ll go from awkwardly standing during family convos to actually joining in. You’ll finally understand his dad’s jokes and do online shops with his sisters. Although, this doesn’t make the sex scenes during family film nights any less uncomfortable (the key to survival is: AVOID ALL EYE CONTACT) or change the feeling of dread when someone goes into the toilet after you.

You’ll have a great time

Despite the teething problems, you get to spend your days with your boyfriend and his family, learning weird things about them, whether that be their weird dance moves, or their strange relationship with the neighbours. Although you miss your own family a lot, you’re having as much fun as you can in this strange new environment, and you’re ultimately grateful that you have a place to stay.