What are your weird family idosyncracies?

[Anonymous]

I'm thinking about small, Seinfeld-ish things, like George's parents getting bent out of shape when they are served coffee without cake, or in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when the dad thinks Windex is a cure-all for every ailment.

I'll start -

My mom collects dinnerware/plates and has them hanging all over the house (and in cabinets too), but when we visit, she only serves meals on paper plates and styrofoam cups. Even for Thanksgiving or a birthday! It's so weird to be surrounded by all this beautiful dinnerware but eat off of paper, haha!

When we visit DH's family, his entire family eats the same thing for breakfast every day, all at exactly the same time. It freaks me out! They all have a bowl of cereal, something like bran or Weetabix, then walk over to the sink, empty their bowls, and sit down again with a cup of coffee and toast with jam. It never varies - never a poached egg, a piece of fruit, cheese. For 35+ years.

Your turn. Hope we can keep this lighthearted.

[Anonymous]

I don't remember/know if all my immediate family members did this, but I do know that my brother and I (closest in ages) both clean up our table space when eating in a restaurant.

Meaning, we gather up our plates and silverware, collect all straw/cracker/sugar wrappers as well as napkins and ball them up on the top making a neat pile, and also wipe up any detritus/crumbs around our place. If we are in a booth, we move them to the end of the table so they are easier to reach.

We do this because we think it is beneficial to the wait staff so all they have to do is pick up one tidy pile. I've read that sometimes it's actually annoying for them, but we can't seem to break the habit of "helping."

[Anonymous]

^ My DH, on the other hand, leaves his breadcrumbs, food spills, wrappers, and dish/flatware spread all over. We laugh and tell him he's a slob! It's funny when we all go out and dine together.

[Anonymous]

My mom is the opposite, OP. She has a beautiful dinnerware set and a very rare tea set and she uses everything and always made occasions very special growing up. She threw us kids a tea party with the tea set. She uses cloth napkins every day. She has a (what I considered) fancy chip and dip set that must be from the 60s or 70s. It has a little metal holder for the dip bowl. That came out every holiday. Also a punchbowl and she would make fancy ice rings.

I'm getting horrible and don't even want to put up a Christmas tree each year because I'll have to take it all down. I'll have to try to channel my mother's A+ effort. And let her know how much I appreciate her.

[Anonymous]

My MIL has a second dining room table with chairs she never uses (it is a large open concept Texas-sized dining room).

On special occasions when it would make sense to put the two large dining tables together, she doesn’t. Instead she adds two card tables to the regular dining room table. One of the card tables is incredibly heavy and she stores it in the attic and brings it down and that is a whole dangerous production every time. The tables aren’t even heights or shapes, either.

And she won’t even use the other dining tables’ nice chairs, either—she brings out folding chairs. So there we sit, crammed around this makeshift stupid table on wobbly chairs, while this whole other never-used dining table just sits there. Madness!!

[Anonymous]

My husband is one of six kids. All are married, three have kids. Every single freaking person in his family gives every other person multiple Christmas gifts. Like, 3-5 each. And it's all junk. We don't even spend Christmas together. Instead a bunch of junk from Amazon shows up on our doorstep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My MIL has a second dining room table with chairs she never uses (it is a large open concept Texas-sized dining room).

On special occasions when it would make sense to put the two large dining tables together, she doesn’t. Instead she adds two card tables to the regular dining room table. One of the card tables is incredibly heavy and she stores it in the attic and brings it down and that is a whole dangerous production every time. The tables aren’t even heights or shapes, either.

And she won’t even use the other dining tables’ nice chairs, either—she brings out folding chairs. So there we sit, crammed around this makeshift stupid table on wobbly chairs, while this whole other never-used dining table just sits there. Madness!!

omg, that is insane!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband is one of six kids. All are married, three have kids. Every single freaking person in his family gives every other person multiple Christmas gifts. Like, 3-5 each. And it's all junk. We don't even spend Christmas together. Instead a bunch of junk from Amazon shows up on our doorstep.

So your DH is buying and sending gifts to all his siblings, their spouses and kids?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is one of six kids. All are married, three have kids. Every single freaking person in his family gives every other person multiple Christmas gifts. Like, 3-5 each. And it's all junk. We don't even spend Christmas together. Instead a bunch of junk from Amazon shows up on our doorstep.

So your DH is buying and sending gifts to all his siblings, their spouses and kids?!

Yes. I used to do it when we first married and then I dropped the rope. I do send him ideas because they send stuff to me too. But we get about 40-50 Christmas presents every year. I hate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking about small, Seinfeld-ish things, like George's parents getting bent out of shape when they are served coffee without cake, or in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when the dad thinks Windex is a cure-all for every ailment.

I'll start -

My mom collects dinnerware/plates and has them hanging all over the house (and in cabinets too), but when we visit, she only serves meals on paper plates and styrofoam cups. Even for Thanksgiving or a birthday! It's so weird to be surrounded by all this beautiful dinnerware but eat off of paper, haha!

When we visit DH's family, his entire family eats the same thing for breakfast every day, all at exactly the same time. It freaks me out! They all have a bowl of cereal, something like bran or Weetabix, then walk over to the sink, empty their bowls, and sit down again with a cup of coffee and toast with jam. It never varies - never a poached egg, a piece of fruit, cheese. For 35+ years.

Your turn. Hope we can keep this lighthearted.

Are you sure they're not aliens pretending to be as normal and human as they can?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking about small, Seinfeld-ish things, like George's parents getting bent out of shape when they are served coffee without cake, or in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when the dad thinks Windex is a cure-all for every ailment.

I'll start -

My mom collects dinnerware/plates and has them hanging all over the house (and in cabinets too), but when we visit, she only serves meals on paper plates and styrofoam cups. Even for Thanksgiving or a birthday! It's so weird to be surrounded by all this beautiful dinnerware but eat off of paper, haha!

When we visit DH's family, his entire family eats the same thing for breakfast every day, all at exactly the same time. It freaks me out! They all have a bowl of cereal, something like bran or Weetabix, then walk over to the sink, empty their bowls, and sit down again with a cup of coffee and toast with jam. It never varies - never a poached egg, a piece of fruit, cheese. For 35+ years.

Your turn. Hope we can keep this lighthearted.

Are you sure they're not aliens pretending to be as normal and human as they can?

Thank you for saying that, because it's exactly what I think - OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking about small, Seinfeld-ish things, like George's parents getting bent out of shape when they are served coffee without cake, or in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when the dad thinks Windex is a cure-all for every ailment.

I'll start -

My mom collects dinnerware/plates and has them hanging all over the house (and in cabinets too), but when we visit, she only serves meals on paper plates and styrofoam cups. Even for Thanksgiving or a birthday! It's so weird to be surrounded by all this beautiful dinnerware but eat off of paper, haha!

When we visit DH's family, his entire family eats the same thing for breakfast every day, all at exactly the same time. It freaks me out! They all have a bowl of cereal, something like bran or Weetabix, then walk over to the sink, empty their bowls, and sit down again with a cup of coffee and toast with jam. It never varies - never a poached egg, a piece of fruit, cheese. For 35+ years.

Your turn. Hope we can keep this lighthearted.

Are you sure they're not aliens pretending to be as normal and human as they can?

Thank you for saying that, because it's exactly what I think - OP

What happened the first time you didn’t eat that breakfast?

[Anonymous]

If my DH is standing next to his mom while she's sitting, she'll put her arm around his waist and he'll sit on her lap sideways. The first time I saw this he was in law school, so like early 20's, and I, who came from a very WASPy home and couldn't recall ever hugging my mother let alone sitting on her lap, freaked out.

After we were engaged she tried to get me to do it once and I walked away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm thinking about small, Seinfeld-ish things, like George's parents getting bent out of shape when they are served coffee without cake, or in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when the dad thinks Windex is a cure-all for every ailment.

I'll start -

My mom collects dinnerware/plates and has them hanging all over the house (and in cabinets too), but when we visit, she only serves meals on paper plates and styrofoam cups. Even for Thanksgiving or a birthday! It's so weird to be surrounded by all this beautiful dinnerware but eat off of paper, haha!

When we visit DH's family, his entire family eats the same thing for breakfast every day, all at exactly the same time. It freaks me out! They all have a bowl of cereal, something like bran or Weetabix, then walk over to the sink, empty their bowls, and sit down again with a cup of coffee and toast with jam. It never varies - never a poached egg, a piece of fruit, cheese. For 35+ years.

Your turn. Hope we can keep this lighthearted.

Are you sure they're not aliens pretending to be as normal and human as they can?

Thank you for saying that, because it's exactly what I think - OP

What happened the first time you didn’t eat that breakfast?

I have managed to avoid breakfast for the past 20 years by claiming jet lag.

[Anonymous]

My mom puts the eggs away (she doesn't keep them in the carton) so each egg is next to one it was next to in the carton so they don't get lonely.