They talk with food in their mouth, occasionally spitting bits of it on the table or to someone else’s food

My MIL pronounces it, “EYE-talian”.

My MIL monopolizes conversations and will go into great detail about her travel: how long she had to wait for her luggage, the conversation she had with the flight attendant to get an earlier flight, etc. She also confuses China and Japan and refers to them interchangeably.

My mil is never thoughtful of her grandkids. Not even a dollar store birthday card for my 5 yr old daughter. Fortunately we don’t need her to and I make sure they have abundance. On the other hand she will make requests from us to spend money on relatives living with her such as expensive gifts like beats headphones. We never miss her birthday, Christmas, Mother’s day cash gifts. She also expects us to pay for every little or big item when we are around her including bottle water. My own mother likes to bring too many house guest when she visits including other grandchildren, relatives and friends. She also leaves food crumbs and other stuff on the table.

My MIL drives a Porsche.
But walking through a department store, she will pick up something like a purse or a pair of sunglasses, look at the price tag (usually something under $200) and remark that "well...that's absurd! Who can afford to pay THAT?" and put them back down. The irony seems lost on her.

Refuse to use coasters on the furniture or place cups right on the countertops, which need no coasters. For some reason, both our moms always have a paper napkin under their mug. But these women never want to use a whole paper towel, they tear tiny bits of the roll, and reuse ziplocks and cling wrap. Baffling.

My inlaws are sweet and they miss seeing us. They live in the middle of nowhere and have inexplicably cleared out their guest room. No furniture. No linens. Nada. So we have to bring all manner of mattresses/bedding/towels when we visit.

They also keep ZERO food in the house; they go out for almost every meal. The first time I realized this, we’d stayed overnight with our 2 year old, and when we woke up they’d gone to the local gas station for coffees (only for them) and said we’d be having breakfast at a diner. We didn’t eat until almost noon and I literally had NO food for our toddler. It was awful. Now we drive there and back, 7+hours round trip, in one day so we don’t have to deal with bringing provisions. Super fun.

My MIL always shows up with a cooler full of food that we have to somehow jam into our tiny fridge. Every single time. Meanwhile we go to their house with two small children, and have to make sure to bring our own cooler to use there because there is not an inch of space available in her fridge for anything, even baby food or breast milk. Also their house is so dirty. Sticky countertops, dust on everything, dog hair, spider webs in corners. Ugh.

Make half a pot of coffee, even when we're staying in their house.

"We only have a cup each, so a whole pot would be a waste."

Yeah, but there are four of us now, and DH and I each drink at least two cups.

"You're making a WHOLE POT??!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Nothing really. She's in the last stages of Parkinson's, she repeats herself, pretty soon she won't be able to go to the toilet by herself, and everytime we have plans and want to leave the apartment, she suddenly finds herself ill.

But she escaped a war zone with three children under 6, and her strategizing and quick thinking probably saved their lives. The scion of an important family, she took only what she could carry and started from scratch in a different country with a husband who was mentally ill.

She is wise and good. She deserves a good ending.

My MIL is also a goddess of this caliber. She also drives me effing mad. But if I told you what she did in her home country you wouldn’t believe it.

Tell us! PPs MIL sounds kick-@ss!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for fun...

What are the most (mildly) irritating habits or things your in-laws do?

I’ll start:
Despite being born/raised in the US, MIL refers to the US as “the States.”

When an ambulance drives by with a siren on, FIL makes a big show out of clamping his hands over his ears until it passes.

I call the US ‘the states’ too, what is wrong with that? It is more accurate than calling it America.

It's almost exclusively used by non-Americans, so it comes off as affected. To me, at least. I love my MIL, but she's a total snob and obviously sees herself as a very cultured person, so I do think she does it to seem more European/sophisticated.

This is totally wrong. In the past of the Midwest I’m from, almost everyone uses the phrase “the States” to refer to the United States. I do it sometimes and it’s just a regionalism. No one from my hometown fancies themselves as a sophisticate.

Pp here. My MIL is from PA. I’m willing to reconsider my position. See, we’re getting stuff done in this thread!

Anonymous wrote:My MIL doesn't throw any food out. She has a crisper drawer full of condiments from Chinese restaurants. Not the individual packages of soy sauce or duck sauce--these condiments come in little condiment cups. She only goes to this restaurant a few times a year so she has some that are literally years old. Same with any kinds of other condiments in her fridge. I have to check the expiration date on everything DS or I eat there. She thinks nothing ever truly goes bad and thinks it's wasting money to throw anything out even if it's expired.

+1

The failure to understand that certain foods that are old, can make you ill.

My MIL doesn't throw any food out. She has a crisper drawer full of condiments from Chinese restaurants. Not the individual packages of soy sauce or duck sauce--these condiments come in little condiment cups. She only goes to this restaurant a few times a year so she has some that are literally years old. Same with any kinds of other condiments in her fridge. I have to check the expiration date on everything DS or I eat there. She thinks nothing ever truly goes bad and thinks it's wasting money to throw anything out even if it's expired.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for fun...

What are the most (mildly) irritating habits or things your in-laws do?

I’ll start:
Despite being born/raised in the US, MIL refers to the US as “the States.”

When an ambulance drives by with a siren on, FIL makes a big show out of clamping his hands over his ears until it passes.

I call the US ‘the states’ too, what is wrong with that? It is more accurate than calling it America.

It's almost exclusively used by non-Americans, so it comes off as affected. To me, at least. I love my MIL, but she's a total snob and obviously sees herself as a very cultured person, so I do think she does it to seem more European/sophisticated.

This is totally wrong. In the past of the Midwest I’m from, almost everyone uses the phrase “the States” to refer to the United States. I do it sometimes and it’s just a regionalism. No one from my hometown fancies themselves as a sophisticate.

*part. I see someone upthread said they used this in Pennsylvania. I’m from Western New York. We also say “the Smiths.” It seems like people are unnecessarily bothered by perfectly normal regionalisms.

Anonymous wrote:My MIL is an excellent cooks, and feeding people is how she shows love. This is great, except she will try to feed us 5-6 meals a day. I don't like to disappoint her, but there's only so much food I can eat!

I like her! My MIL likes to starve us and never has any food. If we go out and buy food she gets upset.