Slightly Irritating Things Your In-Laws Do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bring us crap like furniture and Knick knacks they no longer want (they are constantly devluttering their condo and cluttering our home), and bringing us their old clothes or clothes they bought st second hand stores. Clothes that are in style for the over 70s set. If we ask them to watch our kids, they will bring takeout for dinner, which they will eat as soon as they get to our house without thinking of what the children will eat. We often pay them for the takeout. They refuse to take off their shoes to go upstairs (our bedrooms have carpet), so they never go upstairs.

I don’t get this. Why aren’t you feeding your kids? Why are you paying for the takeout they paid for before they brought it Over? Do you offer or do they
Yes we feed our own kids. It’s like they do the babysitting because we will pay for their meal.ask?

Yes, we feed our kids. The in laws are basically self absorbed. They are in it for the free meal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Ditto, and I’m from Indiana. I’ve also never heard Midwesterners talk about “the States.”

Yes, I've spent a lot of time living in various parts of the Midwest and have never heard anyone using these expressions either.

I've heard people who are presently living overseas discuss when they plan to fly back to "the States" to visit, or return to "the States" to live, but I've never heard anyone living in the US refer to their country as "the States." Can anyone give an example of the context in which people are saying this?

“The croissants in Paris are exquisite. So much better than anything you get in the States.” -my MIL, while sitting on her porch in Pennsylvania, pronouncing “croissant” as “KWA-sant”

? That is (close) to how it’s pronounced. Is she supposed to say Kra-SANT? That pronunciation drives me loopy

Sometimes "correct" can seem a little affected. I speak French fluently, but here in "the States," I generally order a "cruh-SAHNT." I think it'd come across as pretentious if I said "KWAH-sanh." (It would be as bad, in my view, as insisting on saying "pair-ee" when people ask me about my last trip to France.)

My only real issue with my in-laws is that they have a compulsive need to always do something. Sitting and watching a baseball game on TV while we lazily chat and have a beer or two is not an option. Fortunately, the happy solution to this is to always have little projects when they visit. Install some new blinds, clean out the fridge, build some shelving in the garage -- they love feeling like they're helping and I love having that kind of help!

[Anonymous]

MIL made her grandmother name Momo, so my little baby basically call her mama

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bring us crap like furniture and Knick knacks they no longer want (they are constantly devluttering their condo and cluttering our home), and bringing us their old clothes or clothes they bought st second hand stores. Clothes that are in style for the over 70s set. If we ask them to watch our kids, they will bring takeout for dinner, which they will eat as soon as they get to our house without thinking of what the children will eat. We often pay them for the takeout. They refuse to take off their shoes to go upstairs (our bedrooms have carpet), so they never go upstairs.

+1

Like it’s some kind of gift.

A gift that goes straight to donation without coming into the house!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Ditto, and I’m from Indiana. I’ve also never heard Midwesterners talk about “the States.”

Yes, I've spent a lot of time living in various parts of the Midwest and have never heard anyone using these expressions either.

I've heard people who are presently living overseas discuss when they plan to fly back to "the States" to visit, or return to "the States" to live, but I've never heard anyone living in the US refer to their country as "the States." Can anyone give an example of the context in which people are saying this?

“The croissants in Paris are exquisite. So much better than anything you get in the States.” -my MIL, while sitting on her porch in Pennsylvania, pronouncing “croissant” as “KWA-sant”

? That is (close) to how it’s pronounced. Is she supposed to say Kra-SANT? That pronunciation drives me loopy

Sometimes "correct" can seem a little affected. I speak French fluently, but here in "the States," I generally order a "cruh-SAHNT." I think it'd come across as pretentious if I said "KWAH-sanh." (It would be as bad, in my view, as insisting on saying "pair-ee" when people ask me about my last trip to France.)

My only real issue with my in-laws is that they have a compulsive need to always do something. Sitting and watching a baseball game on TV while we lazily chat and have a beer or two is not an option. Fortunately, the happy solution to this is to always have little projects when they visit. Install some new blinds, clean out the fridge, build some shelving in the garage -- they love feeling like they're helping and I love having that kind of help!

+1

Unless you're a native French speaker or you use the same principle for all other French/English words (that is, you pronounce Paris as "pair-ee"), it comes off as affected and obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIl spends her spare time rearranging everything in my kitchen to her "better" way

OH MINE DOES THIS- INFURIATING

[Anonymous]

My MIL knows I take an XL in t-shirts and then buys me t-shirts that she knows are too small and says "Well, I thought about getting women's women's XL, but then again you couldn't be that big, so I got a medium. I guess I can return it. Or wear it myself because I am so much smaller."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIL made her grandmother name Momo, so my little baby basically call her mama

Just refer to her as Grandma. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Ditto, and I’m from Indiana. I’ve also never heard Midwesterners talk about “the States.”

Yes, I've spent a lot of time living in various parts of the Midwest and have never heard anyone using these expressions either.

I've heard people who are presently living overseas discuss when they plan to fly back to "the States" to visit, or return to "the States" to live, but I've never heard anyone living in the US refer to their country as "the States." Can anyone give an example of the context in which people are saying this?

“The croissants in Paris are exquisite. So much better than anything you get in the States.” -my MIL, while sitting on her porch in Pennsylvania, pronouncing “croissant” as “KWA-sant”

? That is (close) to how it’s pronounced. Is she supposed to say Kra-SANT? That pronunciation drives me loopy

Sometimes "correct" can seem a little affected. I speak French fluently, but here in "the States," I generally order a "cruh-SAHNT." I think it'd come across as pretentious if I said "KWAH-sanh." (It would be as bad, in my view, as insisting on saying "pair-ee" when people ask me about my last trip to France.)

My only real issue with my in-laws is that they have a compulsive need to always do something. Sitting and watching a baseball game on TV while we lazily chat and have a beer or two is not an option. Fortunately, the happy solution to this is to always have little projects when they visit. Install some new blinds, clean out the fridge, build some shelving in the garage -- they love feeling like they're helping and I love having that kind of help!

+1

Unless you're a native French speaker or you use the same principle for all other French/English words (that is, you pronounce Paris as "pair-ee"), it comes off as affected and obnoxious.

+2 fluent french speaker here. I would never say Kwa-sant. Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIL made her grandmother name Momo, so my little baby basically call her mama

Just refer to her as Grandma. Done.

Or Moe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIL made her grandmother name Momo, so my little baby basically call her mama

Just refer to her as Grandma. Done.

Or Moe.

+1 to these.

This is on you, original PP. I would not have allowed it.

[Anonymous]

Since the thread says irritating things your in-laws do, I am going to assume that includes my daughter-in-law!

No, wait. You guys totally don't have enough time for that rant.

Also, I don't say "the states" but I do say "the Google" as in "I'm going to check my symptoms on the Google to see what's wrong with me now!" But I do it just for fun, to see the eye rolls.

[Anonymous]

Says things like "mommy needs to go away so I can be alone with my baby" or "your mommy is keeping me from my baby" or "grammy was a teacher so she knows best" to my child

[Anonymous]

She's the one who had a 50 person grandma shower fot herself when DS was born. I, the baby's child, wasn't invited. Neither was anyone in my family.

She's hoarding the grandma shower stuff in her guest bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Ditto, and I’m from Indiana. I’ve also never heard Midwesterners talk about “the States.”

Yes, I've spent a lot of time living in various parts of the Midwest and have never heard anyone using these expressions either.

I've heard people who are presently living overseas discuss when they plan to fly back to "the States" to visit, or return to "the States" to live, but I've never heard anyone living in the US refer to their country as "the States." Can anyone give an example of the context in which people are saying this?

“The croissants in Paris are exquisite. So much better than anything you get in the States.” -my MIL, while sitting on her porch in Pennsylvania, pronouncing “croissant” as “KWA-sant”

? That is (close) to how it’s pronounced. Is she supposed to say Kra-SANT? That pronunciation drives me loopy

Sometimes "correct" can seem a little affected. I speak French fluently, but here in "the States," I generally order a "cruh-SAHNT." I think it'd come across as pretentious if I said "KWAH-sanh." (It would be as bad, in my view, as insisting on saying "pair-ee" when people ask me about my last trip to France.)

My only real issue with my in-laws is that they have a compulsive need to always do something. Sitting and watching a baseball game on TV while we lazily chat and have a beer or two is not an option. Fortunately, the happy solution to this is to always have little projects when they visit. Install some new blinds, clean out the fridge, build some shelving in the garage -- they love feeling like they're helping and I love having that kind of help!

+1

Unless you're a native French speaker or you use the same principle for all other French/English words (that is, you pronounce Paris as "pair-ee"), it comes off as affected and obnoxious.

+2 fluent french speaker here. I would never say Kwa-sant. Seriously?

DP here, I guess this depends where you’re from. I’m British and would never say Paree (because Paris is how that word is pronounced in English, like we say Germany and not Deutschland) but croissant is pronounced the French way in British English, and the American pronounciation confuses me every time. But this is not relevant to ILs, who are mildly irritating wherever they’re from. Mine arrange trips to visit us (traveling here from England) but never give us any advance warning, always managing to time visits when we have weekends full of activities which we then feel bad about.