As far as I'm aware they don't seem to do it with his brother and sister. From what I've seen/heard he's the 'special' one because he's the oldest and he was also ill a lot when he was younger, so maybe that's why they (particularly his mum) do it.
His Dad doesn't seem to have a problem with me, and 90% of the time his mum doesn't either, but I do sometimes get the feeling that she doesn't think I'm good enough, although loads of Mum's from what I've heard are like that with their sons
I found out more about this award thing, he's won "most promising student" for technology at uni. He's already said that he won't be inviting his family up, as the ceremony's in the week on a Thursday night, so it wouldn't be the most practical idea for them to come up, so that's a weight off. I guess I'll just have to suck up to the gushing when we're home next.
I think the main reason I'm being funny about it is because I'm worried. If he's getting this much out of his course before even starting the second year, then he's clearly going to go extremely far in the future, in terms of job offers and things, and I'm just worried that he'll be offered this big amazing job that's in a different location that's too far to commute and that it'll spell problems for us. I know if that happens I should try to be happy for him, and ages ago we mutually make a pact that if either one of us were offered an opportunity for a job in the future, no matter how interesting, how much money, how amazing it is, we'd make sure we put the other one of us first before deciding what to do about it, and we both agreed if that meant turning it down, then that's what we'd do.
It sounds silly, reading that back actually. I just think that it's all good making a pact about a hypothetical situation when it's not likely to happen for a while yet, but what's going to happen if and when the situation comes up for real? I think if he was presented with an amazing job opportunity he'd think twice about giving it up for the sake of our relationship, especially with the pressure from his family too. And I wouldn't want them or him to resent me for it if he did give it up so we could stay together.
Way into the future I know, but he keeps talking to his mum on the phone about jobs and what he wants to do after we graduate and it seems time's going faster than we realise. The idea of what happens after graduation scares the shit out of me to be perfectly honest.