I wasn't ready to just announce it. So I ran a test. Told my parents that "a friend" of mine had gotten engaged — casual, third person, low stakes, just floating the general idea to see how the temperature felt in the room before I made it about me.
I did not expect them to run with it quite so hard.
Without knowing this "friend's" fiancé was, in fact, my fiancé, they launched straight into a full analysis. Pros and cons. His profession, his family, his "type," whether this "friend" was rushing into things. A whole spontaneous review board, convened for a hypothetical man they had no idea they were actually vetting.
And I just sat there receiving it. Their completely unfiltered opinion, delivered honestly because they thought the stakes were zero, thought this was idle gossip about someone else's life.
I have never in my life gotten a cleaner answer to a question I was too scared to ask directly. No performance, no diplomacy, no adjusting their words because it was their kid. Just the raw take. Best focus group I've ever run, and they'll never know they were in it.