"breaking the news" to family?

[MWS]

My sister rolled her eyes, my bro-in-law shook my hand and fluttered his fingers - saying, "is that it?!"
My mother actually sent me a "congratulations" card after I was raised, lol!
My wife calls Lodge my "out with the boys time" - better then out playing poker.

No interesting stories, my family's cool with it.

 

[hawkeyedan]

My family doesn't disapprove of my being a mason and they really don't ask me to much about it. My wife's family has a line of masons. As my father-in-law is a mason, he was disappointed that he wasn't able to make it to my 3rd degree. He and I actually talk about masonry alot.

 

[goomba]

My family was/is all for me joining the lodge. Men on both side sides of my family are Masons to include my daddy. In my wife's family on her mother's side her grandfather is a Mason. My daddy, my grandfather, and my wife's grandfather are all in the same lodge. On her father's side one of her cousins is a Mason, we were initiated within a three days of each other and his daddy is petitioning the lodge. The only person who does not like the lodge is my father in law, he claims religious reasons.

Bottom line is like everything else you can't make everyone happy. I don't like the fact that my father in law doesn't like the lodge but that is his lose not mine.

 

[Bob Franks]

I am a Masonic orphan. The nearest to a relative was my grandmother's 2nd husband who entered the Craft in his 50's and died a couple of years later. One of my mom's brothers was a Mason, but I didn't know this until seeing his tombstone a couple of years ago.
No one in my family said much about me petitioning or being Raised 34 years ago.
My son, who professes to be an atheist, is not interested.
Wife is not interested in OES.


S&F

 

[2SONDAD]

No Masons on my side, but both of my wife's grandfathers were Masons. Her grandmother was OES and her mother was Rainbow. My wife has zero interest in OES and calls it my "secret society time", which she know isn't true.

 

[DesertRacer]

congrats! Its nice to see your mom and dad supported your decision. My mom on the other hand has always been against my dad being a mason and for whatever reason she didnt like that I had wanted to follow. I love your moms question LOL. Other family members were clueless and asked if it was a drinking lodge like a moose club. ummm no. wow.

I didn't tell my parents until after I was raised, as I was concerned of their comments. After I was raised, I called my dad and told him and he acted as though it were no different than any of our other conversations. After he realized how important it was to me, he offered a congratulations and that he's happy for me. Now, my mom, on the other hand, was a little different. She was exstatic. She asked a ton of questions and then led in to "I'm jealous." I laughed and told her that she couldn't be one and joked with her about it. Then I told her about OES. Before we got off the phone, she says to me that she understands that I couldn't answer a lot of her previous questions but she had one more that I HAD to answer no matter what. I told her I would try. She asks if during our "meetings" (I put that in quotes because she actually used the bunny ears version of putting something in quotes when speaking. LOL) if I was being hurt. After I laughed for a little while I told her that we actually have meetings and nothng more and no...I was never in any harm. My mom was very pleased that I was a Mason. I am the only one in my family to become a Mason and I couldn't be happier.

 

[FamilyMan]

My father (3o year+ member) was very happy, as was my grandfather (50 year+ member).

 

[devlin]

My mother was ecstatic because my grandfather, her father was a 32nd. She said he would have been so happy and proud to have been able to see me joining the fraternity. She sent me all of his Masonic things. I have his Scottish Rite ring, the Bible he received from the SR, what seems to be a 32nd degree paper like a diploma, that was in a leather envelope, and his Blue Lodge and AASR dues cards.

As for the interesting aspect... After joining my lodge I found out that my grandfather's lodge was also a Jerusalem lodge. What are the odds?

I contacted his old lodge and they have been keeping in touch with me wanting to know how I am progressing through my degrees. It really shows how close the fraternity is when men of a lodge 500 miles away whom I've never met are glad I joined and take such an interest in my progress.