Slightly Irritating Things Your In-Laws Do

[Anonymous]

I thought about all of you people talking about how guests just like to graze this weekend. My inlaws eat a HUGE breakfast and then don't eat dinner until 5pm. I just couldn't eat that early and feel sick in the morning. I was dying of hunger every afternoon. Lunch is normally my big meal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought about all of you people talking about how guests just like to graze this weekend. My inlaws eat a HUGE breakfast and then don't eat dinner until 5pm. I just couldn't eat that early and feel sick in the morning. I was dying of hunger every afternoon. Lunch is normally my big meal

And you're banned from the fridge and local cafes and grocery stores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is cute. It makes me grateful for my in-laws. Outside of my MIL asking "what are you doing now?" each time I look at my cell, there really is not much that annoys me. I lost my parents when I was a teen, so I'm grateful to have my in-laws as they treat me like I am one of their own.

I actually think that is kind of a great way to remind people that constantly checking their phones is impolite. I'm going to start doing that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love my MIL but she will only communicate with me about planning, only talks to me and not her son about what to bring for dinner etc. Meanwhile I have a super high stress job and make 4X as much as my DH. But somehow he gets off with no work or coordination because I'm in charge of the house single-handedly apparently

Stop being a doormat.

“Hang on, Nancy, I’m passing the phone; Kevin is handling the Christmas logistics this year.”

Each and every time.

Done.

How the hell do you get such a high profile job while being a doormat your whole life? Enough already. Fwd emails or pass the phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She is so clingy. Stops over anytime she wants, but never for a day visit, its an overnight.
Like I'm going to send her 3 hrs home same day, even though she didn't give us the heads up that she was coming.

It's like she asks me questions, him questions separately throughout the week then comes to the conclusion that we will be home Saturday and just shows up.
She gets up at like 4-5am and drives 3 hrs so there is NO warning. We are sometimes still sleeping when she arrives and we wake up to the dogs barking. The last time she did this she asked for her own key to just let herself in! HELL NO!

This is a husband problem.

Why has he not put a stop to this?

[Anonymous]

FIL asks, "Are you OK?" All the time. Also keeps offering food/etc after I have said no thanks multiple times.

One time I snapped and said "No I STILL don't want any fruit!"

Then I felt bad.

[Anonymous]

FIL farts silently in our car and family room keeping his poker face.

[Anonymous]

My MIL sends videos of her cats eating off her plate. She loves drama and gets upset for everyone so they don't have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FIL farts silently in our car and family room keeping his poker face.

Mine was doing this a few nights ago and it is NOT CUTE.

He also will take a dump in the main-floor powder room when he has an entire bathroom for his own use (with MIL) on the basement level where their guest room is. He literally has an entire floor of our home at his disposal, but he farts in the living room, takes dumps in the powder room, and leaves his slippers RIGHT in the middle of our kitchen floor. And no, he's not elderly-elderly, and has no mental or physical issues. He's just a rude adult man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Refuse to use coasters on the furniture or place cups right on the countertops, which need no coasters. For some reason, both our moms always have a paper napkin under their mug. But these women never want to use a whole paper towel, they tear tiny bits of the roll, and reuse ziplocks and cling wrap. Baffling.

I reuse ziplocks, depending, but cling wrap?

[Anonymous]

Mine break things each time they come. Often drinking glasses, once a huge mirror, one tracked mud all over our just-shampooed carpet (they know we have a no-shoes house).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Ditto, and I’m from Indiana. I’ve also never heard Midwesterners talk about “the States.”

Yes, I've spent a lot of time living in various parts of the Midwest and have never heard anyone using these expressions either.

I've heard people who are presently living overseas discuss when they plan to fly back to "the States" to visit, or return to "the States" to live, but I've never heard anyone living in the US refer to their country as "the States." Can anyone give an example of the context in which people are saying this?

“The croissants in Paris are exquisite. So much better than anything you get in the States.” -my MIL, while sitting on her porch in Pennsylvania, pronouncing “croissant” as “KWA-sant”

? That is (close) to how it’s pronounced. Is she supposed to say Kra-SANT? That pronunciation drives me loopy

Sometimes "correct" can seem a little affected. I speak French fluently, but here in "the States," I generally order a "cruh-SAHNT." I think it'd come across as pretentious if I said "KWAH-sanh." (It would be as bad, in my view, as insisting on saying "pair-ee" when people ask me about my last trip to France.)

My only real issue with my in-laws is that they have a compulsive need to always do something. Sitting and watching a baseball game on TV while we lazily chat and have a beer or two is not an option. Fortunately, the happy solution to this is to always have little projects when they visit. Install some new blinds, clean out the fridge, build some shelving in the garage -- they love feeling like they're helping and I love having that kind of help!

+1

Unless you're a native French speaker or you use the same principle for all other French/English words (that is, you pronounce Paris as "pair-ee"), it comes off as affected and obnoxious.

+2 fluent french speaker here. I would never say Kwa-sant. Seriously?

I pronounce "croissant" "Crescent Roll."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Constantly “tending to” and observing me. No, I don’t want you to warm this muffin in the microwave for me. Yes, I know there’s jam—I just don’t happen to want anything but butter on my table ast this morning. Yes, I know there’s coffee; no, I don’t want you to pour me any.

And at 5 o’clock, it’s constant drinks pushing. Like maybe if you convince me to have a glass of wine, no one will notice you’re already on your third...

how awful.

np -- i get it, the constant hovering and tending is exhausting to be around. My MIL is like that too. Nobody can relax around her.

Remember this thread is [/i]slightly[i] irritating things your ILs do.

My MIL is a bit like the OP describes and it makes me feel uncomfortable because I feel like I am being a burden, that she is constantly worried about acting like a hostess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Constantly “tending to” and observing me. No, I don’t want you to warm this muffin in the microwave for me. Yes, I know there’s jam—I just don’t happen to want anything but butter on my table ast this morning. Yes, I know there’s coffee; no, I don’t want you to pour me any.

And at 5 o’clock, it’s constant drinks pushing. Like maybe if you convince me to have a glass of wine, no one will notice you’re already on your third...

how awful.

np -- i get it, the constant hovering and tending is exhausting to be around. My MIL is like that too. Nobody can relax around her.

Remember this thread is [/i]slightly[i] irritating things your ILs do.

My MIL is a bit like the OP describes and it makes me feel uncomfortable because I feel like I am being a burden, that she is constantly worried about acting like a hostess.

My MIL is totally like this, and it drives me up the wall. The last time they visited, she said, "Larla, there's coffee if you want any" every morning.

Lady, it's my kitchen. *I made the coffee.* It's my house, it's my kitchen, it's my coffee, it's my mug, I know. I know there is coffee! I made it!

[Anonymous]

Mine bring food, and even condiments, with them when they come to visit. We have food, we have three grocery stores in a one mile radius of our home. We ASK them what they'd like us to buy before they come, we have our own coffee and cream, but they bring their own. It is SO WEIRD.

Their favorite store is Aldi, so it's not like they're bringing gourmet shit, either.