Do you "serve" your parents/ ILs when at someone elses home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They wanted things and felt awkward to ask/get themselves in someone else's house, so they turned to you.

OP here. This doesn't make sense to me. It was their son's home. They felt uncomfortable, so they turned to a non-related person to dig through their son's cabinets?

Anyways, yes it was for tea. They don't like regular milk with their tea, and that's what was served. They asked me to get them condensed milk instead. I don't mind getting water or an extra napkin or something, but I felt very uncomfortable being asked to dig through their fridge/cabinets looking for random, less common things.

My mom would never do this, so it definitely felt a bit weird being ordered to serve people in someone elses place. Interesting responses, thank you all for sharing your experiences!

You haven’t answered the cultural part. Not sure where drinking tea with condensed milk is popular but it’s probably from a culture where elders must be respected at all costs. So a lot of people won’t be able to relate here because they don’t come from a culture where waiting on the elders is customary.

If drinking tea with condensed milk was common in this culture, wouldn't it be served with it? Instead of having to specially request it?

It’s a childs birthday party. Maybe the rest of the guests were drinking juice boxes and water.

And wine? LOL

This stuff was probably not actually served or offered which is why op had to rummage to find in the kitchen. The inlaws were being difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I am expected to serve everyone else at every single family party except at my husband’s aunt’s house. I still help her and she is so appreciative but everyone else expects it and if I don’t act fast enough or anticipate needs of others enough, I get called out in my own family.

Is this a cultural thing? Will you get old and expect your DIL to serve you?