With the weather starting to warm up, students will start to have their parents coming to visit for the weekend. (Spring weather in Charlottesville? Yes, please.) If you have a significant other, no matter how official the relationship status actually is, you might be put in the situation of having to Meet. The. Parents.

*cue internal scream*

So usually I'm all for being annoying and bothersome when family is involved, but this is an unusual circumstance where you might actually have to pull yourself together and be on your best behavior. After (barely) surviving my first official “meet the parents" dinner, I live to tell the tale and pass on some useful information, as well as tips I've picked up from others. (Just kidding, they were fabulous — hi, if you're reading this!!!)

Before you meet, do your research. If you're an attentive girlfriend, odds are you know about 80 percent of this family's life already from typical daily conversation. Impress them by knowing about the siblings, where the parents each lived growing up, the mother's favorite flower, how well done she likes her steak, how much the father can bench, and his go-to “dad joke." They will think you are very impressive, and hopefully not that you are super creepy.

While it's a “funny story" to tell your friends, you might want to skip some of the details on how you guys met. This is college, not the eighteenth century. So odds are the story didn't go: “He rode up on his beautifully groomed horse with his sword, shield and silver armor, and he handpicked a bouquet of flowers for me." No — chances are you met on the Boylan dance floor one night and by some miracle of the universe, this cute frat boy texted you the next day. Ugh, college romance. For mom and dad, just makeup something cute that is a loooong stretch of the truth, and then proceed to change the topic immediately. “We met on the corner one day, started chatting and found we had so much in common! So how are the Miami Dolphins doing this season?"

Make sure they know how awesome you are without actually telling them. You want them to think their son is dating a ~catch~ (regardless of if you actually are one or not). If they mention traveling, comment how you traveled to [insert third world country] to build houses and feed the hungry and cure diseases. Oh sorry, you were talking about traveling to work and back? Well anyway, let me tell you about how I'm saving lives and changing the world …

If you're at his house, offer to help out. No matter how badly you can't, try to prove that you know how to cook, clean, and be domestic. Prove you'll be a dope housewife one day.

Compliment them and their family. A lot. Compliment the cooking, or if you are at a restaurant, rave about the choice of restaurant. Tell them how stylish and trendy their clothes are and how that sweater is “so vintage, so cute" even though it looks like it's from the "pilgrim" age — literally vintage.

Obviously you like their son, so make that known as well and bring up every detail and accomplishment of his so they can tell you pay attention and care about him. Just maybe leave out how he won 17 straight games of beer pong Saturday; most parents don't need to hear about that (though if parents are into that, double bonus — don't screw up with them, they're keepers).

Best of luck; and if all else fails, just smile, look pretty, and DON'T be annoying.