tell me what's odd about where you're staying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After Christmas dinner at MIL's, she read "Little Black Sambo" aloud to my 4 year old while the entire rest of the family (8 adults) sat around and listened.

This definitely could have happened at my dad's parents' but they passed away when I was in elementary school. I hope your daughter doesn't repeat things as much as mine does!

[Anonymous]

This thread makes me even more grateful to have stayed home and hosted. Last year, we were at ILs for the holidays. Meals are served on real plates, but the ceramic plates are placed on top of paper plates. After the meal, the paper plates are discarded, though they are invariably spotless because the plates are all the same size. I have asked DH and he has no idea why.

There are two showers in the house, but only the one in MIL/FIL's bedroom is used. It has been this way since DH was living there.

To the poster who noted all the STUFF in her ILs house, believe me, I feel your pain. ILs have dozens if not hundreds of breakable and non-breakable items on display around the house, many of which are right at eye level for a one or two year old. Amazingly, to date, my kids have broken nothing. MIL periodically gives them some ceramic animal to take home (so it can get broken in my house, I guess). I have no idea what we will do with all that stuff when they pass, but I am not looking forward to dealing with it. (TBF my own parents have a ton of stuff too.)

[Anonymous]

Oh my gosh. I'm recovering from a c-section and this thread is making me laugh too much (it hurts!).

Thank you all for the good reading material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes me even more grateful to have stayed home and hosted. Last year, we were at ILs for the holidays. Meals are served on real plates, but the ceramic plates are placed on top of paper plates. After the meal, the paper plates are discarded, though they are invariably spotless because the plates are all the same size. I have asked DH and he has no idea why.

There are two showers in the house, but only the one in MIL/FIL's bedroom is used. It has been this way since DH was living there.

To the poster who noted all the STUFF in her ILs house, believe me, I feel your pain. ILs have dozens if not hundreds of breakable and non-breakable items on display around the house, many of which are right at eye level for a one or two year old. Amazingly, to date, my kids have broken nothing. MIL periodically gives them some ceramic animal to take home (so it can get broken in my house, I guess). I have no idea what we will do with all that stuff when they pass, but I am not looking forward to dealing with it. (TBF my own parents have a ton of stuff too.)

My mom's wooden dining room table from the 60's has to be covered in these padded table protectors and then the table cloth. I've always thought it was weird and ridiculous and the last time I visited, my son put a box of pizza on top of the table and sure enough, it left a huge mark from the heat. I have no idea what is up with that. Perhaps though, that is what the paper plates are used for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes me even more grateful to have stayed home and hosted. Last year, we were at ILs for the holidays. Meals are served on real plates, but the ceramic plates are placed on top of paper plates. After the meal, the paper plates are discarded, though they are invariably spotless because the plates are all the same size. I have asked DH and he has no idea why.

There are two showers in the house, but only the one in MIL/FIL's bedroom is used. It has been this way since DH was living there.

To the poster who noted all the STUFF in her ILs house, believe me, I feel your pain. ILs have dozens if not hundreds of breakable and non-breakable items on display around the house, many of which are right at eye level for a one or two year old. Amazingly, to date, my kids have broken nothing. MIL periodically gives them some ceramic animal to take home (so it can get broken in my house, I guess). I have no idea what we will do with all that stuff when they pass, but I am not looking forward to dealing with it. (TBF my own parents have a ton of stuff too.)

My mom's wooden dining room table from the 60's has to be covered in these padded table protectors and then the table cloth. I've always thought it was weird and ridiculous and the last time I visited, my son put a box of pizza on top of the table and sure enough, it left a huge mark from the heat. I have no idea what is up with that. Perhaps though, that is what the paper plates are used for?

Heat leaves marks on wood. That is what is up with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes me even more grateful to have stayed home and hosted. Last year, we were at ILs for the holidays. Meals are served on real plates, but the ceramic plates are placed on top of paper plates. After the meal, the paper plates are discarded, though they are invariably spotless because the plates are all the same size. I have asked DH and he has no idea why.

There are two showers in the house, but only the one in MIL/FIL's bedroom is used. It has been this way since DH was living there.

To the poster who noted all the STUFF in her ILs house, believe me, I feel your pain. ILs have dozens if not hundreds of breakable and non-breakable items on display around the house, many of which are right at eye level for a one or two year old. Amazingly, to date, my kids have broken nothing. MIL periodically gives them some ceramic animal to take home (so it can get broken in my house, I guess). I have no idea what we will do with all that stuff when they pass, but I am not looking forward to dealing with it. (TBF my own parents have a ton of stuff too.)

My mom's wooden dining room table from the 60's has to be covered in these padded table protectors and then the table cloth. I've always thought it was weird and ridiculous and the last time I visited, my son put a box of pizza on top of the table and sure enough, it left a huge mark from the heat. I have no idea what is up with that. Perhaps though, that is what the paper plates are used for?

I hope you offered to replace it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes me even more grateful to have stayed home and hosted. Last year, we were at ILs for the holidays. Meals are served on real plates, but the ceramic plates are placed on top of paper plates. After the meal, the paper plates are discarded, though they are invariably spotless because the plates are all the same size. I have asked DH and he has no idea why.

There are two showers in the house, but only the one in MIL/FIL's bedroom is used. It has been this way since DH was living there.

To the poster who noted all the STUFF in her ILs house, believe me, I feel your pain. ILs have dozens if not hundreds of breakable and non-breakable items on display around the house, many of which are right at eye level for a one or two year old. Amazingly, to date, my kids have broken nothing. MIL periodically gives them some ceramic animal to take home (so it can get broken in my house, I guess). I have no idea what we will do with all that stuff when they pass, but I am not looking forward to dealing with it. (TBF my own parents have a ton of stuff too.)

My mom's wooden dining room table from the 60's has to be covered in these padded table protectors and then the table cloth. I've always thought it was weird and ridiculous and the last time I visited, my son put a box of pizza on top of the table and sure enough, it left a huge mark from the heat. I have no idea what is up with that. Perhaps though, that is what the paper plates are used for?

I hope you offered to replace it.

You can get rid of the heat mark with a towel and an iron or something like that. I had to do it to ours. Found a YouTube video and figured might as well try it. It worked!

[Anonymous]

Experience many similar things at my parents' house:

-- No fruit or vegetables in the house. No real food other than a couple packages of Chips Ahoy. The cupboards are packed with random things (e.g., lightbulbs) but no actual food. The refrigerator is bare except for condiments that, like a PP said, expired ages ago.

-- Liquid soap dispensers at every sink but when they get low they add water so it just squirts all over. I'm not even sure how much soap is in there and whether our hands are getting clean.

-- So. many. tchotkes.

-- Hundreds of plastic bags. They hang from the railing to the basement. I (stupidly) asked for one in the middle of changing a diaper, and they ran around like chickens with heads cut off yelling at each other rather than just taking a bag from the massive hoard. I don't know what that was about.

[Anonymous]

MIL always trying to show off. She bought a new china cabinet and stored her "good china" in there. After dinner she was serving tea and announced that she was going to let us use the good china. I was sipping tea from my cup and realized there was a TJ Maxx price tag in my cup and in everyone's cup. She didn't even wash the cups!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staying in a 1600SF rancher with my in-laws. They have 5 TV that are on from the very moment they wake up until they go to sleep. Full volume, all day every day. If I am the only one in a room I turn the TV off but IL comes in right after to turn back on, then leaves the room with TV on. Sports, NCIS episodes, Westerns, 24 hours of A Christmas Story . . .

Ugh. Do they play the same thing on each TV or are there 5 competing shows on at once?

usually all different. Sometimes two will have the same football game, but one TV gets the signal about 20 seconds before the living room, so there is all sorts of yelling from one room to he next, "Robbie, you better be watching, your team is about to do something."

That would just about kill me. Gah.

Now my parents' habit of having 3 different music CDs playing in different rooms, on the other hand, does not bother me in the least.

[Anonymous]

Who else is sleeping on a bed with a bedspread that hasn't been cleaned in over 25 years?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The orange juice is served in shot glasses.

The towels are strangely nonabsorbent. Trying to dry off with them just moves the water around on your body.

The crisper drawer in the refrigerator is filled with C and D batteries.

Same here. But next to the batteries are piles of condiments in to-go containers. Like spicy mustard, duck sauce and soy sauce from Chinese restaurants she went to months or even years ago. Also, you have to check the labels before eating anything. Last night when looking for dressing to eat with my salad I realized that 3 out of 4 opened bottles of dressing expired in 2014. The 4th expired in 2015. She'll decide that we're eating off of paper plates which is fine because I don't love eating off of dishes washed with a bar of soap but her paper plates are literally from the 80s or maybe early 90s. I looked up a photo of the packaging. Thanks to everyone who commiserated and understood the spirit of the thread. I feel much less alone now. And writing all of this out makes me seriously wonder why I come back.

Going home tomorrow!!!!!!!

That's nothing, OP. My mom buys canned or jarred goods in bulk and then forgets about them. About 6 months ago I pulled out about 7 jars of jam, all unopened, dating back to 2010 or earlier! (I mean that's the expiration date listed so actually they were older.) She wouldn't let me throw them out. But admitted she's not going to use them. So she put them back. My sister was there a month or two later, found them, and texted me in horror. I told her just wait until you find the expired cans of soup.

To be fair my mom has some memory issues (lupus) so she has an excuse for buying stuff and forgetting about it, but it would be so much better if she'd make a list or something so she replaces only what she needs. I have finally hit upon that solution for my own freezer and there's so much less frozen waste. (And I don't have memory issues so I have no excuse other than laziness.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIL always trying to show off. She bought a new china cabinet and stored her "good china" in there. After dinner she was serving tea and announced that she was going to let us use the good china. I was sipping tea from my cup and realized there was a TJ Maxx price tag in my cup and in everyone's cup. She didn't even wash the cups!

You are a real b----, hope you choked at that price tag. so what if her "good china" is from TJ Maxx. Yes, she should have washed them first, but get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

ALL of my parent medications (tylenol, etc) are expired. Many of them have expirations dating back to the 80s. I am not kidding. They tell me to use them because they are "fine." They think I am a snob because I won't use a pill that expired in 1981.

[Anonymous]

Feels like the Sahara Desert in here but when I ask to turn the a/c on, I'm told no.