Recently, we were at a family gathering. In front of everyone, mil begins to ask me (not her own child), 'hey do you think uncle G can stay with you guys next month. He'll be going to an event 1 hour away, and it would be nice if he didn't have to get a hotel etc." I'm thinking, if uncle G is so close with us, why doesn't he ask" (we are not close with him, but I thought if he ever personally asked, we would say yes." And I thought, "man I'm feeling a little used by someone who doesn't need me to subsidize their hotel." I mean, we are not that close to the event. But to be nice, I was like, "yes, he can. let me just check on our calendar and see if we're free to host..." Then, she tells me he will be bringing a woman. Ok, now I'm floored. She got me to say yes, then threw another wrench. Admittedly, it's not a big deal, except that she asked me one thing, I said yes, and then she added more!! I hedged a bit. "Oh well, right now, I'm not sure we're the best hosts to non-family. We've got loud crazy kids and a lot of stuff happening..." She began assuming it was bc they were in a relationship, saying 'there wouldn't be anything inappropriate happening! I think they're just friends.' Seriously, that's not why I cared. I just didn't feel like calling her approach an ambush in front of everyone.

Ok, so after her 1) asking me, and leaving her own child out of the conversation 2) being awkward 3) ambushing me with a second guest after the fact..... I begin to collect myself, dcum style. Firm but, I'm also having to stay calm in front of her entire family. I say, "you know, why don't you have uncle G call us, and we'll work it out with him."

Her reply: "oh he doesn't know anything about the idea of staying with you." Ok......

The whole thing could not have been more awkward.

She asked about it, again, in front of lots of people later. I grabbed DH to be part of this conversation. But just said, "yeah, I don't think it will work out."

First time I met my MIL my DW and I had been dating about six months, serious but far from engaged. She had flown in from a good distance away. We are at dinner and she is talking about her new art store business but that she knew little about accounting. I said jokingly "Oh, you should meet my mother she is great with numbers." Mother and daughter started laughing and I said "what's so funny?" and her mother said "Funny you should mention your mother, I'm having lunch with her tomorrow!" After her mother left I asked my now DW "when did you plan on telling me about this lunch" and she said "Well.......". The mothers hit it off and I knew I was toast. That was 35 years ago!

Anonymous wrote:When I attended my now-husband's family reunion, as his then-fiancee, a gaggle of his relatives didn't even say hello or how are you, they immediately just started rapid-fire asking me questions about my ancestry. They were updating ancestry.com in real time with my answers.

That's hilarious

I like this thread, too . My contribution is that my MIL wanted to be IN the delivery room with us when our kids were born. I vehemently put my foot down (she passive-aggressively stopped speaking to me for several months during my first pregnancy over this issue). Even weirder than her desire to do so is that another one of her DILs and each of her daughters did let her stay in the delivery room when their kids were born! Oh, how did I forget this other nugget - unbeknownest to us during our first child's bris, MIL asked the mohel for his foreskin and the mohel gave it to her! I don't even want to think of what she did with it ...

I have enjoyed this thread. So, bumping it up jic someone who hasn't seen it might share their experience.

The only one I can think of for me was an occasion when I flew into the city my SIL and Il's lived. SIL was going through a tough time as her husband had left her for another woman. I was going to spend the night there and attend to some business the next day. My wife and the IL's knew this. The SIL and I talked well into the night and she was very emotional. Late that evening she went to bed and after a little time she asked me if I could just hold her for a while. I did and she quickly fell asleep. Early the next morning my FIL walked through the front door and scared the hell out of me. Fortunately I was asleep on the couch and not still laying on the bed with her.

When our 3 year old son was born, MIL made it clear that she was going to come and help us with our new baby. It was my third baby, DH's first-- second marriages for both of us. First, I insisted that I was okay, and didn't need them to come and help, but that they were welcome to come and see the baby and visit whenever they wanted.

But no matter, MIL came and stayed for a month, sleeping on a blow up mattress in the nursery rather than in the guest room. Every time the baby cried, she'd pick him up and wait for me to come and get him so I could BF him. She didn't change diapers, clothes, do laundry, do dishes, or help with the older kids. She basically just spent a month sleeping on the floor of the room I had planned on using for quietly nursing my new baby.

My ILs were recently visiting and we were talking about renovations for the house. I told them I want to remodel one of our bathrooms because the shower is so small (shower head is probably four feet up the wall and it's so tiny you can barely turn around in it). My MIL responded by saying, "that's because you're so large!" While I am tall, I'm a size 4-6 and am much skinnier than anyone related to my DH.