Meeting your Thai girlfriend's parents can be a sign she's serious about you, so ask her what the invitation means in her family before you go. Find out what her parents like, dress neat, let her show you the greeting, bring a small gift, answer their questions about your work plainly, offer to help and listen more than you talk.
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We read what 139 people writing in Thai on Pantip, a Thai-language forum, said about meeting a partner’s parents: what the parents ask, what to bring, what to do, and what happens when the parents say no. Most of them write about Thai couples, so their counts show what comes up most when Thai people talk about a partner’s parents, not how every Thai family sees a Western man. That is still where your visit starts. Where this page goes beyond what they wrote, about a Western man in the room, it says so.
Is meeting your girlfriend’s parents a big deal in Thailand?
Often it is, though families differ, so ask her. Of 13 people in our count who wrote about timing, 5 said a partner who won’t introduce you to their parents is telling you something about how serious they are; all 5 were in one thread about one couple. One Thai mother wrote that she would teach her own children to bring someone home only when they’re sure, and only the person they mean to build a family with. 1
That gives the same lunch two different weights. To you it may be a chance to meet the people who raised her. To her family, and to her, it can read as a statement of where the two of you are heading. Nobody in the threads compares how a Thai woman and a Western man see the meeting, so that difference is our reading, but it’s the safe one to go in with: if you aren’t ready to be seen as her serious partner, say so to her before the visit, not after. Don’t treat the invitation as proof of anything either: ask her how she sees the two of you.
An invitation home can be a sign she’s serious, or simply a family meal. Ask her what it means to her and her family before you go, and go in the role the two of you have agreed.