First night we arrive. IL's (MIL, FIL, SIL and 2 kids) have already been there for a few days. FIL says he will order pizza for dinner. Orders ONE pizza for 7 people. 2nd night, declares that he and MIL are going out to dinner alone. SIL makes no move to do anything so I order food for everyone and pay for everyone.
It's not terrible in the grand scheme of things, just so different than my family.

Anonymous wrote:SIL planned to take this week off & offered to look after my kids (both her kids and my kids don't have camp this week), Friday night, she reminded her husband this and he appeared shocked / insisted that none of us told him this/he has to work, etc... It was awkward for all of us but he apologized. I dropped off the kids yesterday with lunch for everyone and SIL said "what is this? you don't think we feed your kids?". Guess what? She ended up working all day ("so busy she barely left her office") and they all ate the food I dropped off.

SIL seems well intentioned. You seem good at predicting crisis...good combo in this case. Hope they have a good week.

SIL planned to take this week off & offered to look after my kids (both her kids and my kids don't have camp this week), Friday night, she reminded her husband this and he appeared shocked / insisted that none of us told him this/he has to work, etc... It was awkward for all of us but he apologized. I dropped off the kids yesterday with lunch for everyone and SIL said "what is this? you don't think we feed your kids?". Guess what? She ended up working all day ("so busy she barely left her office") and they all ate the food I dropped off.

Anonymous wrote:OMG. I'm on second week of beach vacation and ILs just left. Finally will be relaxed. I can't even begin to list the crazy shit they occupy their mental energy while having nothing interesting to contribute. At least no one will be up at 4am tomorrow, making noise and then sitting for hours staring at the wall until we all wake up.

OP here. I’m currently hiding while DH is in the shower and my kids are still sleeping. I made the mistake of silently going down to the kitchen to get my iced coffee from the fridge yesterday, and I heard MIL hiss to FIL “They’re up!” And they came bounding out of their room. I smiled and whispered good morning as I took my coffee back up to the top floor where our bedrooms are. They hover and pounce and I will not deal with them unless DH is up.

OMG. I'm on second week of beach vacation and ILs just left. Finally will be relaxed. I can't even begin to list the crazy shit they occupy their mental energy while having nothing interesting to contribute. At least no one will be up at 4am tomorrow, making noise and then sitting for hours staring at the wall until we all wake up.

Anonymous wrote:OP with an update: by the time they decided, the first restaurant they called no longer does carryout, and the line was continuously busy and they couldn’t get through, because it was after *6:30 p.m.,* and they tried to blame it on the restaurant. So we had scant leftovers from last night. I told them that when we order tomorrow, all orders will be written down on a list by 5:30 p.m., and I’m calling. If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t get ordered and I’m assuming you are eating a bowl of cereal or a sandwich from the fridge.

That's a good solution. They'd set my teeth on edge.

I’m sorry OP! This sounds annoying! My ILs are the exact opposite. I will get a phone call next week telling me where we are going to eat and what they are going to order (why do i care what they are eating??) for my son’s birthday dinner taking place next month!!
Thankful that they stopped vacationing with us years ago!

We won’t vacation with anyone unless they are chill. Some of my siblings are chill, some are not. Same with friends. Vacation time is too precious to waste with crazies.

OP with an update: by the time they decided, the first restaurant they called no longer does carryout, and the line was continuously busy and they couldn’t get through, because it was after *6:30 p.m.,* and they tried to blame it on the restaurant. So we had scant leftovers from last night. I told them that when we order tomorrow, all orders will be written down on a list by 5:30 p.m., and I’m calling. If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t get ordered and I’m assuming you are eating a bowl of cereal or a sandwich from the fridge.

Anonymous wrote:OMG I hate the debate about who is going to share. I agree that portions are way too big but we have teenagers who will devour any left overs at midnight. We don’t need to share.

Once I made the mistake of agreeing to share with MIL. Good god, she basically monologues for 15 minutes through the menu rejecting almost anything. Hoping to get on with my life, I told her anything was fine with me. She ordered a cup of soup and loudly slurped it all down. She didn’t even notice that I had nothing. I ordered another glass of wine and almost chugged it.

Haha I know. Everyone agrees restaurant portions are crazy large. At basically all restaurants. It’s not new or interesting information. Why must it be talked about for ages? I never share with anyone. It’s just my policy and everyone knows it. Eat what I want, save or trash the rest.

My rant for this summer is what the hell we are supposed to do about COVID. We all finally got it, it stinks. But every camp, employer airline everyone has a different policy about when you can stop isolating. I am so tired of this. Trying to do the right thing given how some people literally don’t want to know about exposure or anything any more it’s a lot of effort that it feels like no one else is doing any more.

OMG I hate the debate about who is going to share. I agree that portions are way too big but we have teenagers who will devour any left overs at midnight. We don’t need to share.

Once I made the mistake of agreeing to share with MIL. Good god, she basically monologues for 15 minutes through the menu rejecting almost anything. Hoping to get on with my life, I told her anything was fine with me. She ordered a cup of soup and loudly slurped it all down. She didn’t even notice that I had nothing. I ordered another glass of wine and almost chugged it.

Anonymous wrote:Offer to treat, no need to share.

We…are treating? Not sure what this has to do with anything. Everyone still has to order, no matter who pays. You get that, yes?

Offer to treat, no need to share.

And...you continue to vacation with people you don't like. STOP DOING IT!

I know it’s petty. It’s just a vent. Come on in. If you don’t want to contribute, then ease on down the road.

At the beach with ILs, so plenty of material. But at this point, I’m screaming into the pillow because we are ordering dinner tonight, and they are on their fourth restaurant decision, and now are in their 58th deep discussion of whether they can share this or that, or can they order this without that, and what about if they split this and that and maybe saved some for tomorrow’s lunch?

In 3 minutes, I wrote down what we would order for the kids and me whether we ordered from Restaurant Finalist A or Restaurant Finalist B, and then I came upstairs to hide until they actually order. I guarantee they won’t order for another 30 minutes, and then when they do, they will be shocked—SHOCKED—that the pickup time will be an hour because it’s busy.