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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is your MIL’s name Marie Barone?[/quote]

Ha! I was going to ask the same thing![/quote]

I also thought Italian when I read the description.  It sounds like some of my older Italian relatives.  Can you kids help her in the kitchen?  That might make a better bonding experience and she can show off her skills.  It may also be some early signs of dementia.  A lot of elderly become more obsessive about the things that they do know or feel comfortable with as they start losing grip on learning and doing new things.  Familiar is comfortable, different is anxiety producing.  
OTOH, it may get better with age.  In her 60s and 70s, my mom very much wanted Sunday dinner at her house with whoever could come.  And there was often conflict because she would overwork herself and get irritable or anxious.  Now in her 90s, she is happy to go to someone else’s house—she’s just more tired, got bored of the whole hosting thing, and is happy to have others cook.  She’ll still do some of her specialties to bring or have people over for a few times a year, and still has a general preference of having big holidays at her house to use the nice China and so forth.  [/quote]

The problem with helping in the kitchen is that DH will be sitting there watching TV. DD will also find a screen and I'll be the one helping. I try to help as much as I can but I also keep DD engaged by bringing a craft or something for her. Otherwise she gets quite bored there. 
Some posters are envisioning a family dinner where we all sit around the table to drink wine, eat good food and laugh and talk. That's not what this is, though. It's more like what you are describing above. [/quote]

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