Crazy things your parents/in laws do/have in their house.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if my parents have caught on that 'dick' means penis. I think in their day it was "peter'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad's OCD/anxiety manifests itself by a desperate need to know something RIGHT NOW.

For example, if he cannot remember who directed a movie, the title of a book, etc., he'll Google it and jot it down somewhere. So there are little pieces of paper with things like "Brian DePalma" written on it scattered around.

This a new thing, the past couple of years. Not dementia-related. It drives my mom nuts.

With all due respect, it's just the beginning.

It's definitely anxiety-related as of now, according to all the specialists he's seen. He's clearly been on the brink of an anxiety disorder his whole life, but it was always manageable.

He takes Seroquel and it's really helped. He used to get up in the middle of the night to Google things, and he doesn't anymore. He's 75 and this started 4 years ago when he was diagnosed with COPD. The thought of not being able to breathe triggered all his other anxieties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My MIL has sticky notes with phrases and short descriptions denoting what is inside. On ever cabinet, every drawer, every closet. Before anyone asks: they live very rural and don't have friends or other relatives over, or if they do it's barely once per year (I guess the only time it come sin handy). They have lived in the house for decades. I have been to their house countless times. Everyone knows where everything is. They're in their late 50s/early 60s, so no dementia diagnoses. It just looks so funny with stickies everywhere!

I've thought about doing this at our house for my dh. But I know it would look crazy. I did label our young son's dresser drawers. Why? Because I was sick of hearing dh say to our 3 year old "Where the heck are your pajamas? Are they all dirty? What are you supposed to wear to bed?" Loudly, so I could hear just how hard life is for him because he could never find the pajamas. You'd think me pouring out to him, several nights a week, that the PJs are indeed clean, and folded in the same drawer always would have stopped him from this passive aggressive charade, but it did not. Sorry to derail, but maybe she was tired of your FIL's idiocy, so she labeled everything.

[Anonymous]

At my mom's house, when you grab what you think is margarine from the fridge, you open it up to find two potatoes, an egg, and a piece of celery.

[Anonymous]

I do agree with what has been said about food issues and the women well into their 70s and 80s. MIL is constantly commenting about what we're eating, what she sees someone else eating and even what she sees people's pets eating. It is exhausting to be around her. I have also cleaned out her pantry with pasta from 2004 and salad dressing from 2010.

[Anonymous]

Good timing. My ILs just arrived for the week and before even saying hello MIL commented on my weight, dh's weight, and the physique of one of our kids. Shortly thereafter when I pulled out deli turkey, carrots and pretzels for lunch, she bragged about how she basically only eats yogurt all day when she is home. Are we supposed to be ashamed that we .... wait for it ... actually eat?? quelle horreur!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good timing. My ILs just arrived for the week and before even saying hello MIL commented on my weight, dh's weight, and the physique of one of our kids. Shortly thereafter when I pulled out deli turkey, carrots and pretzels for lunch, she bragged about how she basically only eats yogurt all day when she is home. Are we supposed to be ashamed that we .... wait for it ... actually eat?? quelle horreur!

My mil does this too. All the time. Brags about how little she eats/what she eats. It drives us all crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good timing. My ILs just arrived for the week and before even saying hello MIL commented on my weight, dh's weight, and the physique of one of our kids. Shortly thereafter when I pulled out deli turkey, carrots and pretzels for lunch, she bragged about how she basically only eats yogurt all day when she is home. Are we supposed to be ashamed that we .... wait for it ... actually eat?? quelle horreur!

My mil does this too. All the time. Brags about how little she eats/what she eats. It drives us all crazy.

She must post here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do agree with what has been said about food issues and the women well into their 70s and 80s. MIL is constantly commenting about what we're eating, what she sees someone else eating and even what she sees people's pets eating. It is exhausting to be around her. I have also cleaned out her pantry with pasta from 2004 and salad dressing from 2010.

YES THIS! WTH? Gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom refuses to buy trash bags. Your only choice is the little bags from the grocery store. I'm one five kids so the last time everyone was up I bought garbage bags. She blew her lid and said I disrupting her system. Holy crap we had fourteen people at the house.

+1

This, too! WTH?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad always gets a case of 'fancy beer' that he hauls out for when I visit - because he's a coors light man, and I like craft beers. This 'fancy beer' is actually Yeungling, which I don't even like. However, I went for one once in a pinch, and discovered that it was skunked.

Turns out, my dad just keeps putting all those beers in the fridge when I'll be in town, and then puts them all back in a box in the garage when I leave.

OMG, my folks too. I swear there are bottles of beer from 1999 that they just keep taking out of the fridge and putting in their closet until we visit the next time. We surreptitiously get rid of at least 4 bottles a visit by pouring them out while we are outside grilling, but the supply is seemingly endless. I also made my kid kraft mac and cheese last time i was there, when i opened the cheese packet to pour it in, the cheese was brown and fell out in a huge clump- expiration date 2004. My mom told me to just add more milk and it would be fine, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good timing. My ILs just arrived for the week and before even saying hello MIL commented on my weight, dh's weight, and the physique of one of our kids. Shortly thereafter when I pulled out deli turkey, carrots and pretzels for lunch, she bragged about how she basically only eats yogurt all day when she is home. Are we supposed to be ashamed that we .... wait for it ... actually eat?? quelle horreur!

My mil does this too. All the time. Brags about how little she eats/what she eats. It drives us all crazy.

She must post here.

This is also my MIL. She eats practically nothing in part because she's not very mobile due to many health problems and doesn't expend much energy. She cannot understand that most of us require more than a few hundred calories per day. She comments on everyone's weight, whether they're eight months or 80 years old, thin or heavy. She's always had the weight obsession but it's gotten worse since her own health has declined.

My in-laws also have had the same housekeeper since DH was a kid. She's a very nice lady and they pay her ridiculously well, but she's not at all good at her job. I can never tell when she's been there because the place still looks dirty after she leaves. DH and his siblings have discussed paying for a legitimate cleaning company, and also volunteered to clean the place themselves on a rotating basis, but my in-laws won't hear of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Nothing crazy in parents' houses.

Sadly, it's my husband who's crazy: he has a hoarder mentality and keeps and eats expired foods as much as possible, as well as everything he's acquired even though we don't use it, because "it might come in useful some day".

I have been on a campaign these past few weeks to help him clean up and throw things away, but it's been an uphill battle. Three quarters of what should be thrown away he still wants to keep. The remaining quarter is waiting to be picked up by bulk trash appointment tomorrow!

I wonder where he gets it from??? His parents are not like this.

Sorry, PP. I take it he's not interested in professional help? Hoarders rarely get better without it.

PP with hoarding husband. UPDATE -

He let me organize the basement. This is a big deal for a person with hoarding tendencies, in the past I had to promise not to touch his stuff! I think half the items got donated, thrown away or recycled. Plenty of mouse droppings and moldy stuff in there.

It sounds really unfair to sane people that one partner should do all the work for the other. However, in cases such as these, it's the best scenario. He can't bear to throw stuff away, and doesn't know how to assign varying degrees of importance to different items. Since he accumulates, the sheer amount of stuff then becomes overwhelming and he starts blotting it out of his mind. He even suggested we move to a bigger house at one point!

So we've made progress. With this success in mind, I have to enforce stricter rules for stuff acquisition and regular bouts of clean-up, now that we can actually walk down there and the stuff is arranged in a logical way. And no, he has always refused getting professional help, or reading the books about clutter and hoarding that I got him.

Phew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL has sticky notes with phrases and short descriptions denoting what is inside. On ever cabinet, every drawer, every closet. Before anyone asks: they live very rural and don't have friends or other relatives over, or if they do it's barely once per year (I guess the only time it come sin handy). They have lived in the house for decades. I have been to their house countless times. Everyone knows where everything is. They're in their late 50s/early 60s, so no dementia diagnoses. It just looks so funny with stickies everywhere!

I've thought about doing this at our house for my dh. But I know it would look crazy. I did label our young son's dresser drawers. Why? Because I was sick of hearing dh say to our 3 year old "Where the heck are your pajamas? Are they all dirty? What are you supposed to wear to bed?" Loudly, so I could hear just how hard life is for him because he could never find the pajamas. You'd think me pouring out to him, several nights a week, that the PJs are indeed clean, and folded in the same drawer always would have stopped him from this passive aggressive charade, but it did not. Sorry to derail, but maybe she was tired of your FIL's idiocy, so she labeled everything.

NP here. Based on my parents, I think this is likely correct. My dad will still occasionally holler from the kitchen asking for where the can opener is, but he usually sees the note and figures it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your mom.us a good cook than she can assess the meat without looking at the expiration date. What is sanitizing countertops?
Nothing is wrong with the old stuff. I prefer lettuce with nothing as my "salad".
There are studies about expired medications, in most cases they are okay. I probably have expired sauces and milk in my fridge because I didn't buy them and I don't use them, but somebody bought them for thanksgiving.

30+ year old medication is not ok. A few years yes. But there is a limit. So you have never heard of Salmanella? That is why you sanitize areas that have been in contact with raw meat. So throw the expired milk/sauces away. What are you keeping gross expired stuff for? Just because someone else brought them doesn’t mean you have to keep them rotting in your fridge.

Google is your friend. Look for the study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. Expiration date is a manufacturer guarantee of the effectiveness not the actual effectiveness or safety.

Sure. But food and drugs expire eventually. They are not good forever. Are you also the kind of person that scoops the mold out of food and eats the rest?

Depends on the food.

Veg mold is ok. Meat mold not so much. Fish mold is really bad. Cooking thru doesn't help with fish. It makes meat edible if you cook it for a day. You can eat moldy veg as-is. However, there is a reason it all tastes horrible. Real yogurt does not expire, it just gets more and more sour. Moldy cheese is the best but it's an acquired taste.

My FIL shits in the living room. He is somewhat (but not totally) immobile. He can make it to the toilet but just doesn't bother. So he has a hospital shit-chair in the living. I am pressured by my DW to chat with him and while FIL is a nice guy and I enjoy our chats, that shit-chair and the unavoidable smell is unbearable. He will nit budge (his daughters are very protective and try to maximize his comfort) nor will he have his shit-chair removed during our visits, because "just-in-case".

That's revolting! Not sure how anyone could visit and 'chat' with a full toilet-chair in the room. Why don't one of the daughters clean the darn thing after he uses it?!