Situation #5: WHAT TO DO ...

         WHEN YOUR ROOMMATE BRINGS THEIR SOUTHERN BAPTIST PARENTS HOME FOR DINNER – In most cases, this scenario can be completely avoided by either leaving the house for the evening, or hiding in your bedroom again, however, sometimes your roommate will say to you, “Hey ____, my parents are coming to eat dinner. You want to hang out and meet them?” This leaves you in an awkward social position. You can decline the offer and come up with a good reason not to go (“Ah, I wish I could, but I’ve got this one free Zoo pass and I’ve just got to use it, like today. I’m sorry, another time,”) or you can kindly accept. The benefit of accepting is that your roommate will have a lot more respect for you, and you can use this as a bargaining chip for getting them to do things like put their dishes away or taking trash out.

At dinner, you should be as polite as you know how to be. This will go a long way in making the evening a success. If you would like, you don’t have to say much the whole evening, as long as you remain polite and use words like; ma’am, sir, please, amen, etc. Should you want to up the ante a bit, here are some talking points for your dinner with the Southern Baptists, in addition to some subjects to avoid: