Come here if your in laws do weird crap at thanksgiving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL will serve family style when she hosts Thanksgiving. We serve buffet style, and I think this is easier for everyone. MIL hosted this year. She has a strange habit of using small bowels for sides and barely putting anything in them. So she has to jump up and run back to the kitchen and fill it up multiple times. She has plenty in the kitchen but she will put about 1 cup of stuffing or mashed potatoes in a serving bowl and it won’t make the way around the table. Also people take less of everything because they don’t know if that’s all there is.

Oh h%ll this is something my MIL would do - but she has weird control issues around food (and other things). How annoying - I empathize!

I'm the poster with the food restrictive mil. This is exactly what she did. She would make a point of letting us all know that she did not eat. She would make a half a sandwich and take a bite or two then put it away and let everyone know that is all she had eaten that day.

My MIL does this too. Endless discussion about her food intake. Pushing around of food at the table, one or two bites eaten. I don't care, but it's kind of fascinating to watch how a whole meal can go by with her taking just 2-3 bites. Sometimes she picks up a forkful of food, waves it around, speaks, then puts it back down for another 5-10 minutes. It's kind of mesmerizing.

When visiting our house it's, "I'll have to skip dinners next week and just do cheese and crackers for dinner after this week of eating!". We are all thin, active and eat normal meals.

It kinda seems like you’re paying a lot of attention to her eating. Why not just ignore? I’m too busy stuffing my face to notice anyone else’s eating habits.

DP here. Sounds like its hard to ignore if the MIL is constantly talking about it.

She talks about it because she gets a response. If no reinforcement is provided, the behavior will stop.

Not PP, but you haven’t met my mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know, am I really outdated? I teach ny kid to take a spoonful of everything that’s being passed around and take a bite of each of those spoonfuls on his plate?

That’s fine. But when your kid is a freaking teenager, he or she no longer has to “try” foods. As a grown adult, I don’t need my MIL pressing me to “just try” the mashed rutabagas. I know by now that I don’t like them, I have tried them. I don’t need them taking up valuable real estate on my plate. At some point, people are allowed to have preferences, and fill their plate the way they see fit. My kids have tried every available food by now, and if they don’t want creamed onions, I’m not going to let some pushy old lady make them “try” them, again, some more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DiL insists on bringing inedible vegan dishes so that she and her children will have options she approves of. The children are clearly miserable being limited to this crap when there is so much other actually tasty food on the table.

Wow, so your DIL hog-ties your son, gags him, and doesn’t allow him to participate in parenting?! Oh no!

(Oh wait, or does the son you raised go along with this? If so, why on Earth are you only blaming DIL?) Uh oh, your sexism is showing, MIL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sober. Very quiet about it, but I did openly have an alcohol abuse problem and worked very hard (and continue to) address it, years ago.

My in-laws drink. A lot. I don't care, but when evenings get rowdy, I tend to hang back with my kids and nieces and nephews, watching movies or just hanging out while the adults socialize in a different area.

My FIL is constantly asking where I am. Like every ten minutes he's asking my wife where did Larlo go? Is he okay? Is he drinking? Why isn't he hanging out with the adults? What is he doing in the family room (Narrator: he is watching Bluey with the kids -- I highly recommend the night time sleep episode). It's endless.

And they also openly judge people for drinking too much (does Billy have a problem? How many whiskeys did he have?) -- despite there being an abundance of booze that all of the people are drinking and even my MIL didn't remember making phone calls right before we ate at Thanksgiving. It's like the batman meme of substance abuse.

Again, I don't care but it's very eye opening being sober in a room of adults who are very...impaired and judgmental about it.

+1. Me too OP. My kids are older teens and are very tired of the alcohol-centered celebrations. So it's me and them hanging out every night during the holidays, and while I love the time together, I get annoyed as to why.

Sammeee. I’m actually not sober but I drink rarely and get bad hangovers very easily so I don’t like to drink (especially around the busy holiday season). The chokehold alcohol has on family events is sad and so boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DiL insists on bringing inedible vegan dishes so that she and her children will have options she approves of. The children are clearly miserable being limited to this crap when there is so much other actually tasty food on the table.

Wow, so your DIL hog-ties your son, gags him, and doesn’t allow him to participate in parenting?! Oh no!

(Oh wait, or does the son you raised go along with this? If so, why on Earth are you only blaming DIL?) Uh oh, your sexism is showing, MIL.

Found the DIL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL will serve family style when she hosts Thanksgiving. We serve buffet style, and I think this is easier for everyone. MIL hosted this year. She has a strange habit of using small bowels for sides and barely putting anything in them. So she has to jump up and run back to the kitchen and fill it up multiple times. She has plenty in the kitchen but she will put about 1 cup of stuffing or mashed potatoes in a serving bowl and it won’t make the way around the table. Also people take less of everything because they don’t know if that’s all there is.

Oh h%ll this is something my MIL would do - but she has weird control issues around food (and other things). How annoying - I empathize!

I'm the poster with the food restrictive mil. This is exactly what she did. She would make a point of letting us all know that she did not eat. She would make a half a sandwich and take a bite or two then put it away and let everyone know that is all she had eaten that day.

My MIL does this too. Endless discussion about her food intake. Pushing around of food at the table, one or two bites eaten. I don't care, but it's kind of fascinating to watch how a whole meal can go by with her taking just 2-3 bites. Sometimes she picks up a forkful of food, waves it around, speaks, then puts it back down for another 5-10 minutes. It's kind of mesmerizing.

When visiting our house it's, "I'll have to skip dinners next week and just do cheese and crackers for dinner after this week of eating!". We are all thin, active and eat normal meals.

It kinda seems like you’re paying a lot of attention to her eating. Why not just ignore? I’m too busy stuffing my face to notice anyone else’s eating habits.

DP here. Sounds like its hard to ignore if the MIL is constantly talking about it.

She talks about it because she gets a response. If no reinforcement is provided, the behavior will stop.

No. What you don't get is that this is all they have. They don't have anything else to turn to -- this is it, 24/7. Yay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL will serve family style when she hosts Thanksgiving. We serve buffet style, and I think this is easier for everyone. MIL hosted this year. She has a strange habit of using small bowels for sides and barely putting anything in them. So she has to jump up and run back to the kitchen and fill it up multiple times. She has plenty in the kitchen but she will put about 1 cup of stuffing or mashed potatoes in a serving bowl and it won’t make the way around the table. Also people take less of everything because they don’t know if that’s all there is.

Oh h%ll this is something my MIL would do - but she has weird control issues around food (and other things). How annoying - I empathize!

I'm the poster with the food restrictive mil. This is exactly what she did. She would make a point of letting us all know that she did not eat. She would make a half a sandwich and take a bite or two then put it away and let everyone know that is all she had eaten that day.

My MIL does this too. Endless discussion about her food intake. Pushing around of food at the table, one or two bites eaten. I don't care, but it's kind of fascinating to watch how a whole meal can go by with her taking just 2-3 bites. Sometimes she picks up a forkful of food, waves it around, speaks, then puts it back down for another 5-10 minutes. It's kind of mesmerizing.

When visiting our house it's, "I'll have to skip dinners next week and just do cheese and crackers for dinner after this week of eating!". We are all thin, active and eat normal meals.

It kinda seems like you’re paying a lot of attention to her eating. Why not just ignore? I’m too busy stuffing my face to notice anyone else’s eating habits.

DP here. Sounds like its hard to ignore if the MIL is constantly talking about it.

She talks about it because she gets a response. If no reinforcement is provided, the behavior will stop.

No. What you don't get is that this is all they have. They don't have anything else to turn to -- this is it, 24/7. Yay.

Also they’re relentlessly hungry so the topics of food and weight are always front of mind.

[Anonymous]

My MIL will not sit down for more than a few minutes. Puts a damper on everything and really rushes the meal. It’s been like this for the 20 years I’ve known her. We try to ignore but it’s tough because she’s practically clearing people’s plates and putting food away in containers right after everyone gets their food and sits. I am the one the does most of the cooking because her cooking has been deemed inedible by everyone (though she still makes a few things that go completely uneaten by anyone). So I’ll cook for hours and hours and have about ten minutes to eat. Hate it. I’ve stopped making the good stuff for their house and just host my own dinner with my immediate family and some friends the next day. Next year I’m just buying dinner from the store. Not worth the effort. This year was the last!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DiL insists on bringing inedible vegan dishes so that she and her children will have options she approves of. The children are clearly miserable being limited to this crap when there is so much other actually tasty food on the table.

Wow, so your DIL hog-ties your son, gags him, and doesn’t allow him to participate in parenting?! Oh no!

(Oh wait, or does the son you raised go along with this? If so, why on Earth are you only blaming DIL?) Uh oh, your sexism is showing, MIL.

Found the DIL!

I don’t know about your children, but MY children are parented by both parents. Unless PP’s son is dead or on an overseas deployment, there is zero reason to lay parenting decisions only at the feet of the mother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: MIL chicken. Cant believe so many of you are sticking up for MIL? I assume you’re ok with people double dipping then? Or sticking their grubby paws in the bowl of chips or crackers instead of using tongs? You people are wild.

You can break apart a rotisserie chicken with a fork and knives. I do it all the time to serve it to my own family. I would never tear it up like a raccoon unless I was the only one eating it.

You are missing a ton of meat that way. I don’t get what’s so confusing to you about clean hands. THEY ARE CLEAN. This is how you remove ALL the meat from a cooked bird.

NP. I don’t know about you, but when I serve a roast chicken or a roast turkey, my goal for the first meal enjoyed by my guests is not “get all this meat off the bone, now.” It is “I’m going to nicely carve and present more than enough meat for this particular meal.”

Then, later, I will wash my hands, remove all the meat from the carcass, and store it for future use. I don’t tear apart a chicken as my guests are waiting for dinner.

Well for starters, I don't serve company a store bought rotisserie chicken that cost $6 in the first place. But yes, when I do buy rotisserie chicken, we use every last bit. First, as carved chicken. Then we use breast slices for sandwiches the next day. Then we get the remaining meat off to use for soups and casseroles. Then we make stock. I'm not at all surprised though that young parents today slice some breast meat off and chuck the rest into the trash with their empty starbucks cups and Cava bowls.

OMG. How old are you?

Too accurate?

More like judgmental granny b___

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DiL insists on bringing inedible vegan dishes so that she and her children will have options she approves of. The children are clearly miserable being limited to this crap when there is so much other actually tasty food on the table.

Wow, so your DIL hog-ties your son, gags him, and doesn’t allow him to participate in parenting?! Oh no!

(Oh wait, or does the son you raised go along with this? If so, why on Earth are you only blaming DIL?) Uh oh, your sexism is showing, MIL.

Found the DIL!

Np. Pp does have a point. The kids do have 2 parents raising them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of your stories really made me laugh out loud. Particularly the fart in the face by the FIL (FIL fart face), the "man sized" a$$ wipes, and the itty bitty MIL that has to sit in a booster. hilarious!!!

our holiday was just the immediate family. the only funny thing was when my 11 year old DD asked why my husband didn't help with the dishes. "is it because you don't have a vagina?" lol

So what was the reason? DD sounds intelligent and good for her for calling this out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DiL insists on bringing inedible vegan dishes so that she and her children will have options she approves of. The children are clearly miserable being limited to this crap when there is so much other actually tasty food on the table.

Wow, so your DIL hog-ties your son, gags him, and doesn’t allow him to participate in parenting?! Oh no!

(Oh wait, or does the son you raised go along with this? If so, why on Earth are you only blaming DIL?) Uh oh, your sexism is showing, MIL.

So you are defending the DIL and blaming me. Big surprise! Try to be less predictable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DiL insists on bringing inedible vegan dishes so that she and her children will have options she approves of. The children are clearly miserable being limited to this crap when there is so much other actually tasty food on the table.

Wow, so your DIL hog-ties your son, gags him, and doesn’t allow him to participate in parenting?! Oh no!

(Oh wait, or does the son you raised go along with this? If so, why on Earth are you only blaming DIL?) Uh oh, your sexism is showing, MIL.

So you are defending the DIL and blaming me. Big surprise! Try to be less predictable.

Also, this thread is about weird crap the inlaws do, not weird crap your own family does.

[Anonymous]

Elderly MIL cooked a large meal (3 meats, a ton of sides, and 4 deserts) for 7 people (my strange SIL didn’t eat so there 6 people). Barely anything was done when we got there so I did the Mac & Cheese. She was still working on the other sides. I watched her do the stuffing and she put water, broth, salt and sugar in it so it came out soggy. Everything except the Mac & Cheese tasted terrible. The deserts were store bought and even they didn’t taste good. We all had diarrhea the next day.

I want to tell her that she doesn’t have to do Thanksgiving anymore but she insists just to prove she can do it. I want to go out next year. I know it’s petty but I had to tell someone.