MIL vent

[Anonymous]

So my in-laws and SIL are visiting.. (they live on the west coast)
There is a house on the market across the street from ours.. (No. They are not planning on moving here at all)

MIL just goes around and start searching for the price in properties around us. (Including ours that we bought 3 years ago). It kind of bothered me a little that she is so opinionated about how much our house cost.

This is not the first time she has done it. Every single time they come visit she searches for the price of houses around us. Last time they visited she even asked how our 401K savings where doing. Is that normal?!

Just saying!

[Anonymous]

Some people have no sense of being tacky around finances. If she's not doing the search while visiting you then she is probably doing it from her own home computer whenever you buy a new house.

[Anonymous]

If that's the only thing you have against your MIL, count yourself lucky.

She's nosy and it passes the time for her. Fine.
You could find ways to play with that

[Anonymous]

OP, who cares if she researches it? Better than snooping through your underwear drawer.

[Anonymous]

The sale prices are public record. I think it is very common for people to do this kind of "snooping," though it is certainly in bad taste to discuss it. The 401k comment would bother me more. SO not her business. If you don't want to confront her about that, you could say something like, "Oh, don't worry about us."

[Anonymous]

Yeah IDK, my husband is pretty obsessed with real estate prices and is always looking stuff up. Any time we go over to a new house, he's got to look up the comps in the hood and talk about how expensive it is and could we live here, how much do people make, etc. And in our own hood, he looks up every single house that goes on the market.

[Anonymous]

"Oh, we're doing just fine, Marge! Need some more coffee?" Smile and move on.

[Anonymous]

Maybe MIL is worried about if her son is financially stretched due to your mortgage, and wants to know if you are saving for the future? That seems like a normal concern.

[Anonymous]

I also look up real estate prices in towns when I visit. I think it's interesting to see how much you get for the same price in different cities. Your MIL is probably just amazed at how expensive it is for a modest house. I doubt it's personal.

And the 401k thing, you can just be vague. My dad says something like that every time he visits - be sure that such & such is covered in your car insurance, be sure to get all your matching contributions, etc etc etc. He doesn't even remember saying stuff like that, but he can't help himself - he's my dad and he gives advice. I'm free to get into the details of it if I want his advice, which is often good, or I can leave it vague and just say we've taken care of it, and he respects that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe MIL is worried about if her son is financially stretched due to your mortgage, and wants to know if you are saving for the future? That seems like a normal concern.

And also none of her business. Her son is an adult.

[Anonymous]

Some older people simply worry ALOT. She is probably in sticker shock regarding the sales price of homes. As a previous poster suggested, be vague.