Tales from the beach house

[Anonymous]

Beach vacation with my husband, kids and ILs (FIL/MIL, older aunt/cousin, SIL and her wife and kid). All is going well, and we are having fun. But I thought I'd send some dispatches:

1) SIL's wife is pregnant and is making much of it. She sleeps all day/stays in her room, doesn't watch her 1.5 year old AT ALL, and has her wife running all over at her beck and call: bringing her food, doing her laundry, making special requests like "no coffee this morning, please, my wife is feeling nauseous." We are all rolling with it, but come ON. You are pregnant, it's really not that big a deal.

2) FIL's kitchen habits are kind of funny but kind of gross: microwaving coffee in the late afternoon that had been sitting cold still on the burner all day; standing in the kitchen eating rather than ever sitting down.

3) MIL pretending never to eat indulgent food or drink alcohol, but indulging at every opportunity. It's OK! You can eat and drink, we won't judge!

4) The aunt is a crazy cat lady: any time any of the kids do or say something cute, she launches into a story about her 7 cats. She FaceTimes with her cats via the pet-sitter twice daily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beach vacation with my husband, kids and ILs (FIL/MIL, older aunt/cousin, SIL and her wife and kid). All is going well, and we are having fun. But I thought I'd send some dispatches:

1) SIL's wife is pregnant and is making much of it. She sleeps all day/stays in her room, doesn't watch her 1.5 year old AT ALL, and has her wife running all over at her beck and call: bringing her food, doing her laundry, making special requests like "no coffee this morning, please, my wife is feeling nauseous." We are all rolling with it, but come ON. You are pregnant, it's really not that big a deal.Different people have different pregnancies. SOme experience much worse symptoms- especially nausea.

2) FIL's kitchen habits are kind of funny but kind of gross: microwaving coffee in the late afternoon that had been sitting cold still on the burner all day; standing in the kitchen eating rather than ever sitting down. I microwave my coffe that I brewed in the morning. NBD.

3) MIL pretending never to eat indulgent food or drink alcohol, but indulging at every opportunity. It's OK! You can eat and drink, we won't judge!Let her alone

4) The aunt is a crazy cat lady: any time any of the kids do or say something cute, she launches into a story about her 7 cats. She FaceTimes with her cats via the pet-sitter twice daily.

She must be lonely. It is nice that she has so many children around her this week.

[Anonymous]

The pretending-not-to-eat MIL...I have one of those, too. Is it a generational thing or an old people thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pretending-not-to-eat MIL...I have one of those, too. Is it a generational thing or an old people thing?

NP with a similar MIL. I think it's a disordered eating thing. Noticing/monitoring/observing and commenting on whether people are heavy or thin, what people are eating and how much, constantly announcing what she herself is eating or not eating/drinking. It's CONSTANT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pretending-not-to-eat MIL...I have one of those, too. Is it a generational thing or an old people thing?

Ugh, me too! So annoying. Only mine is a "vegetarian" who lets herself "live a little" and have steak every once in a while. And fish! And chicken. And that hamburger...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beach vacation with my husband, kids and ILs (FIL/MIL, older aunt/cousin, SIL and her wife and kid). All is going well, and we are having fun. But I thought I'd send some dispatches:

1) SIL's wife is pregnant and is making much of it. She sleeps all day/stays in her room, doesn't watch her 1.5 year old AT ALL, and has her wife running all over at her beck and call: bringing her food, doing her laundry, making special requests like "no coffee this morning, please, my wife is feeling nauseous." We are all rolling with it, but come ON. You are pregnant, it's really not that big a deal.Different people have different pregnancies. SOme experience much worse symptoms- especially nausea.

2) FIL's kitchen habits are kind of funny but kind of gross: microwaving coffee in the late afternoon that had been sitting cold still on the burner all day; standing in the kitchen eating rather than ever sitting down. I microwave my coffe that I brewed in the morning. NBD.

3) MIL pretending never to eat indulgent food or drink alcohol, but indulging at every opportunity. It's OK! You can eat and drink, we won't judge!Let her alone

4) The aunt is a crazy cat lady: any time any of the kids do or say something cute, she launches into a story about her 7 cats. She FaceTimes with her cats via the pet-sitter twice daily.

She must be lonely. It is nice that she has so many children around her this week.

LOL, OK, sweetie. This wasn't even a vent just funny stories. I especially like how you say "Let her alone" about MIL eating and fretting about eating. I do leave her alone, darling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beach vacation with my husband, kids and ILs (FIL/MIL, older aunt/cousin, SIL and her wife and kid). All is going well, and we are having fun. But I thought I'd send some dispatches:

1) SIL's wife is pregnant and is making much of it. She sleeps all day/stays in her room, doesn't watch her 1.5 year old AT ALL, and has her wife running all over at her beck and call: bringing her food, doing her laundry, making special requests like "no coffee this morning, please, my wife is feeling nauseous." We are all rolling with it, but come ON. You are pregnant, it's really not that big a deal.


2) FIL's kitchen habits are kind of funny but kind of gross: microwaving coffee in the late afternoon that had been sitting cold still on the burner all day; standing in the kitchen eating rather than ever sitting down.

3) MIL pretending never to eat indulgent food or drink alcohol, but indulging at every opportunity. It's OK! You can eat and drink, we won't judge!

4) The aunt is a crazy cat lady: any time any of the kids do or say something cute, she launches into a story about her 7 cats. She FaceTimes with her cats via the pet-sitter twice daily.

1) wait, they're saying she doesn't want coffee, or that no one in the house should brew coffee?

2) that's really not that bad at all. at least he's not wasting or hogging the best sofa in the house like other people i've gone on vacation with.

[Anonymous]

Adults get their own place, and pay their own way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pretending-not-to-eat MIL...I have one of those, too. Is it a generational thing or an old people thing?

Ugh, me too! So annoying. Only mine is a "vegetarian" who lets herself "live a little" and have steak every once in a while. And fish! And chicken. And that hamburger...

Lol, or mine that's "allergic" to anything green or healthy and doesn't eat "sugar", but then stuffs her face with fried food and pizza.

[Anonymous]

My sister decided to go out and buy half a ton of shrimp to "go with" the dinner I was scheduled to cook -- and then served the shrimp as an "appetizer," except she didn't tell anyone that, and they all thought it was dinner. So no one ate my dinner -- half of them left before I served it.

I know, not a huge deal, but it pissed me off.

[Anonymous]

Grandparents (DH's parents) told us our kids wandering around in their undies or just shorts inside their house made them uncomfortable. Now we are scrambling to keep them dressed without making them feel weird about their bodies but I can't explain why they want them in clothes because even when they explained it I didn't understand. I just agreed to keep the peace. We've just started saying "grandma wants it this way".

They are 8, 7 and 4 and my grandmother actually said 'she isn't wearing a shirt and she is a young woman!' about the 7 yr old. I corrected her and said 'no, she is a little girl' but I don't want you uncomfortable so that's fine. They are all very skinny- as are his parents- no boobs in sight.

To be clear, it's just us and the grandparents. No visitors/other family. No huge windows where people can see in. My DH is perplexed and we are trying to think where/why this came from. They've never said a thing in our house in DC when they were shirtless. I'm starting to wonder if someone touched grandma as a child

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grandparents (DH's parents) told us our kids wandering around in their undies or just shorts inside their house made them uncomfortable. Now we are scrambling to keep them dressed without making them feel weird about their bodies but I can't explain why they want them in clothes because even when they explained it I didn't understand. I just agreed to keep the peace. We've just started saying "grandma wants it this way".

They are 8, 7 and 4 and DH's Mother actually said 'she isn't wearing a shirt and she is a young woman!' about the 7 yr old. I corrected her and said 'no, she is a little girl' but I don't want you uncomfortable so that's fine. They are all very skinny- as are his parents- no boobs in sight.

To be clear, it's just us and the grandparents. No visitors/other family. No huge windows where people can see in. My DH is perplexed and we are trying to think where/why this came from. They've never said a thing in our house in DC when they were shirtless. I'm starting to wonder if someone touched grandma as a child

Sorry, corrected- it's DH's parents, the kids grandparents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grandparents (DH's parents) told us our kids wandering around in their undies or just shorts inside their house made them uncomfortable. Now we are scrambling to keep them dressed without making them feel weird about their bodies but I can't explain why they want them in clothes because even when they explained it I didn't understand. I just agreed to keep the peace. We've just started saying "grandma wants it this way".

They are 8, 7 and 4 and my grandmother actually said 'she isn't wearing a shirt and she is a young woman!' about the 7 yr old. I corrected her and said 'no, she is a little girl' but I don't want you uncomfortable so that's fine. They are all very skinny- as are his parents- no boobs in sight.

To be clear, it's just us and the grandparents. No visitors/other family. No huge windows where people can see in. My DH is perplexed and we are trying to think where/why this came from. They've never said a thing in our house in DC when they were shirtless. I'm starting to wonder if someone touched grandma as a child

Uh, yeah, they should be clothed at that age, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beach vacation with my husband, kids and ILs (FIL/MIL, older aunt/cousin, SIL and her wife and kid). All is going well, and we are having fun. But I thought I'd send some dispatches:

1) SIL's wife is pregnant and is making much of it. She sleeps all day/stays in her room, doesn't watch her 1.5 year old AT ALL, and has her wife running all over at her beck and call: bringing her food, doing her laundry, making special requests like "no coffee this morning, please, my wife is feeling nauseous." We are all rolling with it, but come ON. You are pregnant, it's really not that big a deal.


2) FIL's kitchen habits are kind of funny but kind of gross: microwaving coffee in the late afternoon that had been sitting cold still on the burner all day; standing in the kitchen eating rather than ever sitting down.

3) MIL pretending never to eat indulgent food or drink alcohol, but indulging at every opportunity. It's OK! You can eat and drink, we won't judge!

4) The aunt is a crazy cat lady: any time any of the kids do or say something cute, she launches into a story about her 7 cats. She FaceTimes with her cats via the pet-sitter twice daily.

1) wait, they're saying she doesn't want coffee, or that no one in the house should brew coffee?

2) that's really not that bad at all. at least he's not wasting or hogging the best sofa in the house like other people i've gone on vacation with.

OP here. Yeah, they're saying no one should brew coffee because SIL's wife (who is sleeping in on the lower third level and the kitchen is on the top floor) might smell it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grandparents (DH's parents) told us our kids wandering around in their undies or just shorts inside their house made them uncomfortable. Now we are scrambling to keep them dressed without making them feel weird about their bodies but I can't explain why they want them in clothes because even when they explained it I didn't understand. I just agreed to keep the peace. We've just started saying "grandma wants it this way".

They are 8, 7 and 4 and my grandmother actually said 'she isn't wearing a shirt and she is a young woman!' about the 7 yr old. I corrected her and said 'no, she is a little girl' but I don't want you uncomfortable so that's fine. They are all very skinny- as are his parents- no boobs in sight.

To be clear, it's just us and the grandparents. No visitors/other family. No huge windows where people can see in. My DH is perplexed and we are trying to think where/why this came from. They've never said a thing in our house in DC when they were shirtless. I'm starting to wonder if someone touched grandma as a child

Uh, yeah, they should be clothed at that age, PP.

OP here, and I agree with the PP who agrees that the kids at that age should be clothed. YOU are actually the weird one, no-clothes mom. People are writing about their ILs meaning YOU in this scenario. Why would they not be wearing clothes-clothes, bathing suits and cover ups, or pajamas at least?