Slightly Irritating Things Your In-Laws Do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Nothing really. She's in the last stages of Parkinson's, she repeats herself, pretty soon she won't be able to go to the toilet by herself, and everytime we have plans and want to leave the apartment, she suddenly finds herself ill.

But she escaped a war zone with three children under 6, and her strategizing and quick thinking probably saved their lives. The scion of an important family, she took only what she could carry and started from scratch in a different country with a husband who was mentally ill.

She is wise and good. She deserves a good ending.

I think you found the wrong thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My MIL can’t eat without getting food all over the front of her shirt. She’s of sound mind and body, though slightly overweight, but it’s like, what in the world, woman! My child is cleaner when she eats!

It is the bane of us larger chested women.

[Anonymous]

MIL thought I needed 5 spatulas. I'm happy having one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIL thought I needed 5 spatulas. I'm happy having one.

She was right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for fun...

What are the most (mildly) irritating habits or things your in-laws do?

I’ll start:
Despite being born/raised in the US, MIL refers to the US as “the States.”

When an ambulance drives by with a siren on, FIL makes a big show out of clamping his hands over his ears until it passes.

I call the US ‘the states’ too, what is wrong with that? It is more accurate than calling it America.

It's almost exclusively used by non-Americans, so it comes off as affected. To me, at least. I love my MIL, but she's a total snob and obviously sees herself as a very cultured person, so I do think she does it to seem more European/sophisticated.

[Anonymous]

My MIL is never wrong. One time I corrected her because she had my birthday wrong on her calendar and she asked me, "Are you sure?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for fun...

What are the most (mildly) irritating habits or things your in-laws do?

I’ll start:
Despite being born/raised in the US, MIL refers to the US as “the States.”

When an ambulance drives by with a siren on, FIL makes a big show out of clamping his hands over his ears until it passes.

I call the US ‘the states’ too, what is wrong with that? It is more accurate than calling it America.

It's almost exclusively used by non-Americans, so it comes off as affected. To me, at least. I love my MIL, but she's a total snob and obviously sees herself as a very cultured person, so I do think she does it to seem more European/sophisticated.

Really? I’m Pennsylvanian, and I say “the states”. Maybe it’s a regional thing?

[Anonymous]

My MIL is an excellent cooks, and feeding people is how she shows love. This is great, except she will try to feed us 5-6 meals a day. I don't like to disappoint her, but there's only so much food I can eat!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine calls families / couples by their last names only vs THE whatever.

“We had dinner with Smiths.”
“We went boating with Martins.”

She’s also always asking about the next meal, even if we’re literally eating. It’s her trying to be hospitable and plan, but it’s stressful. I don’t want to think about dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow when I’m eating lunch on vacation!

Is she from the Midwest? I had a MIL from Iowa, and she was the only person I ever heard do this.

[Anonymous]

MIL puts her purse right on our kitchen table or counter. It's the same purse that was just on the floor of a restaurant or even on the floor of a public bathroom. She also doesn't wash her hands in the bathroom after using the bathroom on our main level. She comes out and washes her hands in the kitchen sink every time. Same soap, no fancy towels or anything like that. Sometimes she touches a few things like picture frames on the way from the bathroom to the kitchen sink. It irritates the sh** out of me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine calls families / couples by their last names only vs THE whatever.

“We had dinner with Smiths.”
“We went boating with Martins.”

She’s also always asking about the next meal, even if we’re literally eating. It’s her trying to be hospitable and plan, but it’s stressful. I don’t want to think about dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow when I’m eating lunch on vacation!

Is she from the Midwest? I had a MIL from Iowa, and she was the only person I ever heard do this.

My In Laws are from Wisconsin and they do this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIL puts her purse right on our kitchen table or counter. It's the same purse that was just on the floor of a restaurant or even on the floor of a public bathroom. She also doesn't wash her hands in the bathroom after using the bathroom on our main level. She comes out and washes her hands in the kitchen sink every time. Same soap, no fancy towels or anything like that. Sometimes she touches a few things like picture frames on the way from the bathroom to the kitchen sink. It irritates the sh** out of me.

I'm not as much of a germaphobe as a lot of people on here, but I draw the line on anything that has touched the floor of a busy public place. We are still laughing evilly 5 years later about the time one of our kids, 12 at the time, was pushing his limits on public transit overseas. He was playing with the bottom of his shoe, and I told him to stop since it was so germy. He looked me in the eye, ran his finger along the bottom of the floor, and licked it. Guess who spent the next 2 days vomiting?

Back on topic, it is my opinion that if you know you've told a story to someone 2, 5, or 91 times, you need to preface the next iteration with something along the lines of "I know I've told you this before...". You make that little courteous gesture, and I'll patiently sit through version 327.

[Anonymous]

My MIL just brings so much junk into my house. She left coupons she had from her local newspaper - for stores we don’t have in our town. To be fair, she gets great toys for the kids, but the stuff for me and my DH is just junk.

Always hauling boxes of his childhood stuff for us to sort through : like a big box of empty dvd cases. It’s been 15 years since he lived with them, I wish she would just make an executive decision and toss that kind of stuff, but now it’s my problem. After they leave I tend to walk things right to the trash.

But, my own mom is 10x worse. We don’t see my folks as often, which is a small sanity saver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for fun...

What are the most (mildly) irritating habits or things your in-laws do?

I’ll start:
Despite being born/raised in the US, MIL refers to the US as “the States.”

When an ambulance drives by with a siren on, FIL makes a big show out of clamping his hands over his ears until it passes.

I call the US ‘the states’ too, what is wrong with that? It is more accurate than calling it America.

It's almost exclusively used by non-Americans, so it comes off as affected. To me, at least. I love my MIL, but she's a total snob and obviously sees herself as a very cultured person, so I do think she does it to seem more European/sophisticated.

This is totally wrong. In the past of the Midwest I’m from, almost everyone uses the phrase “the States” to refer to the United States. I do it sometimes and it’s just a regionalism. No one from my hometown fancies themselves as a sophisticate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL can’t eat without getting food all over the front of her shirt. She’s of sound mind and body, though slightly overweight, but it’s like, what in the world, woman! My child is cleaner when she eats!

It is the bane of us larger chested women.

Maybe. My dh is not large by any means and he manages to get at least one stain per meal on his shirt. Drives me batty.