Crazy things your parents/in laws do/have in their house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my MIL is deceased now but she had one pretty big quirk. She was a very proper person with a lot of protocols, not a lot of touching, air kisses, lady-who-lunches type of thing. But if you went into her closet and dressing room (really, it was massively big and much bigger than our living rooms), she had an entire mirrored wall with glass shelves and on the shelves were frogs. She had maybe a thousand of them. It definitely could have been more. They were big/little, cute/ugly, ceramic/wood/stone, you name it. The wall was lighted, the whole nine yards.

The crazy thing was that she adopted the frog wall after the saying "Fully Rely On God". It was really dichotomous to my perception of her because I never thought that she was that religious and certainly she never seem to leave much to chance. She definitely had hidden depths and I wish I had taken the time to know more.

I do know that when my husband told me YEARS after we were married that she liked frogs, I began buying them for her and it certainly helped smooth out the bumps in our relationship (well, that and grandkids). I really, really, really wish he had told me sooner!!!

This is the best one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL has sticky notes with phrases and short descriptions denoting what is inside. On ever cabinet, every drawer, every closet. Before anyone asks: they live very rural and don't have friends or other relatives over, or if they do it's barely once per year (I guess the only time it come sin handy). They have lived in the house for decades. I have been to their house countless times. Everyone knows where everything is. They're in their late 50s/early 60s, so no dementia diagnoses. It just looks so funny with stickies everywhere!

I've thought about doing this at our house for my dh. But I know it would look crazy. I did label our young son's dresser drawers. Why? Because I was sick of hearing dh say to our 3 year old "Where the heck are your pajamas? Are they all dirty? What are you supposed to wear to bed?" Loudly, so I could hear just how hard life is for him because he could never find the pajamas. You'd think me pouring out to him, several nights a week, that the PJs are indeed clean, and folded in the same drawer always would have stopped him from this passive aggressive charade, but it did not. Sorry to derail, but maybe she was tired of your FIL's idiocy, so she labeled everything.

My MIl labels everything and has lists of How To's in their house as well. But it is because FiL has ADHD, as do their two sons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 80+ year old FIL's house is covered with explicit erotic art. Multiple paintings on every wall in every room. They're very artistic but I'm almost to the point where I feel I'm exposing my DS to porn if I take him there.

My parents built 4 tiny rooms (like 15 sq feet) on a porch to house paying exchange students, as well as "renovating" part of the attic (5ft ceilings and 1 window) for more students. To access the attic "room" you have to walk through another room that they also rent out. Oh and a few more students in the gross basement too.

Stereotypical host families out to make a buck??

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If your mom.us a good cook than she can assess the meat without looking at the expiration date. What is sanitizing countertops?
Nothing is wrong with the old stuff. I prefer lettuce with nothing as my "salad".
There are studies about expired medications, in most cases they are okay. I probably have expired sauces and milk in my fridge because I didn't buy them and I don't use them, but somebody bought them for thanksgiving.

30+ year old medication is not ok. A few years yes. But there is a limit. So you have never heard of Salmanella? That is why you sanitize areas that have been in contact with raw meat. So throw the expired milk/sauces away. What are you keeping gross expired stuff for? Just because someone else brought them doesn’t mean you have to keep them rotting in your fridge.

Google is your friend. Look for the study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. Expiration date is a manufacturer guarantee of the effectiveness not the actual effectiveness or safety.

Sure. But food and drugs expire eventually. They are not good forever. Are you also the kind of person that scoops the mold out of food and eats the rest?

Depends on the food.

Veg mold is ok. Meat mold not so much. Fish mold is really bad. Cooking thru doesn't help with fish. It makes meat edible if you cook it for a day. You can eat moldy veg as-is. However, there is a reason it all tastes horrible. Real yogurt does not expire, it just gets more and more sour. Moldy cheese is the best but it's an acquired taste.

My FIL shits in the living room. He is somewhat (but not totally) immobile. He can make it to the toilet but just doesn't bother. So he has a hospital shit-chair in the living. I am pressured by my DW to chat with him and while FIL is a nice guy and I enjoy our chats, that shit-chair and the unavoidable smell is unbearable. He will nit budge (his daughters are very protective and try to maximize his comfort) nor will he have his shit-chair removed during our visits, because "just-in-case".

That's revolting! Not sure how anyone could visit and 'chat' with a full toilet-chair in the room. Why don't one of the daughters clean the darn thing after he uses it?!

That's the definition of a trashy family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just thought it would be fun to list this stuff
Mom:
Always has expired milk/soy milk in the fridge. Has baking supplies (flour/sugar etc) that she never replaces. Same stuff that was there when I was a kid. To be fair she never bakes.
Also pays no attention to meat expiration dates. Never sanitizes countertops after working enmity meat.
Needless to say I don’t eat anything she makes anymore which is a shame because she is actually a very good cook.

In laws. I love them but man...I could go on and on:
House is original from the late 60s/early 70s. The only things that have been updated are things that have broken so they had no choice. Pretty much a time capsule in that house. Think blue carpet, wall paper in kitchen...etc.
They recently purchased a microwave in the past year. Haven’t had one their entire lives.
Expired medication from the 80s that they will insist “is still good”!
When I say everything is original that is down to the towels. They are fraying so horribly at this point it’s crazy.
Never have any food that is “ready to eat” in the house. I.e. there is raw chicken, raw beef, raw vegetables stuff like that. But no actual food you can just eat. They don’t keep leftovers so none of that. They do not eat lunch. Also salad is lettuce in a bowl with nothing else. Asked if they had bbq sauce one time, they had some in the fridge. Expired in 1991.
There is mold everywhere. That they ignore/act like it’s not there even though it’s been pointed out to them numerous times as a problem.
All the furniture is original. Including the sofa, mattresses, beds etc. we can’t sleep there anymore because the mattresses have no support anymore.
For the record, they are extremely well off. They could replace everything if they wanted to.

Very disrespectful. Why am I not surprised.

I am actually very respectful to them thank you. I’m sure they have plenty to say about things I do that they think I are weird too. This is an anonymous forum not a therapy session. Go make yourself a mimosa.

+1000

[Anonymous]

My mom refuses to throw any of her old clothes and shoes out for sentimental reasons. She keeps thinking I'll take it and wear it and forcing it on me, which is ridiculous because she was a size 000 at most (She weighed less than 95 pounds in her twenties).

[Anonymous]

My parents house is boiling hot. They hate turning on the AC in the summer even when its 100 plus degrees. They think I will catch my death of cold.

[Anonymous]

Are super cheap and claim to not understand wedding etiquette. When the four of them went to a wedding downtown, they literally grabbed an old vase of theirs, wrapped it in the car ride there and that was the gift.

Oh and FIL massively undertips. My husband or I are frequently asked if something was wrong with the service if it is their turn to pay.

We've stopped going out to restaurants and certainly not vacation w them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 80+ year old FIL's house is covered with explicit erotic art. Multiple paintings on every wall in every room. They're very artistic but I'm almost to the point where I feel I'm exposing my DS to porn if I take him there.

My parents built 4 tiny rooms (like 15 sq feet) on a porch to house paying exchange students, as well as "renovating" part of the attic (5ft ceilings and 1 window) for more students. To access the attic "room" you have to walk through another room that they also rent out. Oh and a few more students in the gross basement too.

Stereotypical host families out to make a buck??

yep. other than the rooms, they are a pretty good host family in terms of food and interaction, so it could be worse ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom refuses to throw any of her old clothes and shoes out for sentimental reasons. She keeps thinking I'll take it and wear it and forcing it on me, which is ridiculous because she was a size 000 at most (She weighed less than 95 pounds in her twenties).

My mom keeps the clothes I used to wear when I lived there. I'll go visit and recognize a sweater I used to have in high school.

[Anonymous]

Hey!
Not my relatives but close friends of my parents get their dogs preserved (taxidermy) after the dogs died.
So, The dead pets are placed around the house. Otherwise a sane couple.
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

My ILs have a Keurig which they got at a yard sale. I was thrilled after years of visiting waking up to luke warm (at best) coffee from their older (yard sale) coffee machine. But, FIL makes comments if you use Keurig, such as “we made a pot already”. The old pot didn’t get thrown out when the Keurig was bought. He doesn’t want anyone to use it.

MIL licks her fingers when serving food and uses her hands to serve (in between licks).

Also mattresses are at least 35 years old. They gave tons of guests and have never washed the comforters - ever.. They love febreeze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taking cheap shots at older relatives is so much fun! Can't wait for more details!!!

Don’t be so serious.

Okay, just remember this is you in a shorter time than you can imagine.

But it's not. My mother is like all of this wrapped up into one - except she also voraciously criticizes others for their 'filthy dirty homes' but you literally do t want to touch anything or even sit down at her house because it's do dirty - and she has always been like that. It's not an age thing. As a kid I used to get frustrated and cleaned the house but I moved out long ago. Her house is gross - dust, clutter (she throws out nothing), expired foods, expired meds (some have changed into acids they're so old) , no kitchen counters because there's crap piled on them, no kitchen cabinets because expired food and plastic butter tubs are in there.

Anyone else's pets that mom was supposed to bury in the downstairs freezer because she never got around to it??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My ILs have a Keurig which they got at a yard sale. I was thrilled after years of visiting waking up to luke warm (at best) coffee from their older (yard sale) coffee machine. But, FIL makes comments if you use Keurig, such as “we made a pot already”. The old pot didn’t get thrown out when the Keurig was bought. He doesn’t want anyone to use it.

MIL licks her fingers when serving food and uses her hands to serve (in between licks).

Also mattresses are at least 35 years old. They gave tons of guests and have never washed the comforters - ever.. They love febreeze.

Ahhhh, ew. I could not deal - why do you stay there??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom refuses to throw any of her old clothes and shoes out for sentimental reasons. She keeps thinking I'll take it and wear it and forcing it on me, which is ridiculous because she was a size 000 at most (She weighed less than 95 pounds in her twenties).

My mom keeps the clothes I used to wear when I lived there. I'll go visit and recognize a sweater I used to have in high school.

Clean them and sell them on eBay.