Omg such anality from pil. Come and share your anal behaviour stories (lighthearted)

Thermos flasks of coffee, meal-planning, tupperware, turning the lights off. It would be good to cross-reference this thread with the New Year Money Saving Tips one.

I have anxiety and mild OCD so I recognise a lot of the behaviour here (especially turning things off and unplugging) however this is what drive me mad about my DM/MIL/ILs:

1. Boiling vegetables and over-cooking. Once when I was cooking Xmas dinner I told my mum that I would be putting the carrots on 20 minutes before the Turkey was ready. She thought I was trying to poison / choke everyone. Everyone KNOWS you need to put vegetables on a rolling boil for at least 2 hours before they are safe to eat.

1. AOL: news to old people. There are now other internet providers.

1. Satnav. Lone among other technologies, Satnavs are Sacred and Magical to baby boomers. A gathering of in-laws must begin with an hour long devotions to The Satnav and how it transported them to this place. They talk about 'Tom-Tom' as if it's a family dog.

My MIL uses it to come to our house. She lives on one part of the A1, we live an hour south on the A1. As we have for 15 years.

1. Gadgets. If you need to coddle a watermelon or crinkle-cut a potato cake or cinderise a Findus Crispy Pancake, my MIL will get out her special watermelon-coddler (tm) / potato cake crinkle cutter (tm) / Findus Crispy Pancake Cinder Torch (tm). She has a gadget for everything. But she cannot text.

My XBF's mum was absolutely lovely, but quite concerned about cleanliness in a way I don't understand.

Plates were washed, then put in a 'rack in a box' thingy on the drainer to dry. And the toaster was covered (when not in use) with a teatowel. Both of these were protection against floating dust or something.

oops, posted too soon.

.... vast quanitities of wine she drinks and a good ol' daily dose of prozac. Oh, and a markedly less victorian upbringing.

It's slippers or be damned at my in-laws' house. I had my own dedicated pair bought for me on only my second visit to their house with DP. Bless 'em.

Unsolicited teapot-buying - check. We just put em in the back of the cupboard.
Kitchen systems and dishwasher-loading protocol - oh yes. Not to be interfered with.

Cup of tea? Let's hope you're not actually thirsty as it could take up to an hour to materialise (why, oh why, oh why!?!?!?!?)

I love em tho, their hearts are in the right places.

My own father has his very own idiosyncracies - why oh why would one ever park in a paying car park when there is massively inconvenient but crucially, FREE, car-parking space about 3 miles away from where you actually want to park? Why would you want to go to a restaurant where the meals cost over £5 per head -not enjoyable even if the food's manna from heaven. Honestly, you can't really beat an all-you-can-eat carvery for £3 - that's value .....

My mum is far less OCD and I attribute this to the

"A packet of stewed apple (from our own trees, natch) dated 1998"

Oh, shame, had been expecting the dear departed family moggy or something equally unpleasant in the freezer.

As for old foodstuffs... in my late Mum's kitchen I eventually threw out (2010) a can of Curry Powder from Bombay, from the 40s, which was only half used (a small teaspoon to two cans of beans was quite sufficient and still took your head off if you forgot lots of water). Definitely an 'acquired taste' and while I like various Indian and Chinese food, that stuff was simply too dangerous to test out!

My DF brought it back after active service, and then married Mum.

DMIL also has a thing about leftovers and Tupperware and food storage. Nothing is ever allowed to stay in the original packaging from the supermarket, it all gets decanted into various bowls/tins/different size and colour Tupperware. She rearranges her fridge and does the Decanting Dance several times a day.

Not allowed to sit on the edge of the bed at their house either - her own DMum had a rule about it - I hesitate to hint that mattress technology might have moved on since the 1950's

ponders How could you point that out? While zapotek was busy worrying about poo germs on the towel, she had forgotten about the toothbrushes

LaQueen Hope the towel you were biting on was out of aerosolised poo range!!

A worrying thought has just occurred to me. I discovered the other day that DS (14) keeps a list of dates he starts using new biros and how long they last (he only has one in use at a time). Do you think he is already turning into One Of Them?

Maryz, this will probably out me to any family members on here, but several years ago, my aunt invited my DM, DSDad and DGF for Xmas dinner. After about an hr of sitting round talking my grandfather announces whilst this must be fun for everyone else he can't hear a thing because his hearing aids are at home. My DSD then very kindly offers to make the 45min round trip home to pick up the hearing aids.

DGF then spends the rest of the morning not wearing them because he's only got 1 set of spare batteries with him. By the time dinner is served DSD is looking a bit like this . At which point DGF announces that it all looks and smells very nice but he'll be unable to enjoy any of it because...

... he's left his insulin at home.

My elderly uncle won't believe that an automatic washing machine can be easier to use than a twin tub.

xfil used to make dynamo labels to put on every battery ever used which showed the date battery was inserted into the appliance. When asked why he told me that he liked to see how long they had lasted.

He used to keep a battery cupboard with new and used ones in. He used to like to test them with his battery charge checker of a Sunday.

In many respects though, the pre-war generation were environmentalists avant la jour, even if they think it's all 'hippy nonsense' now. Those habits have stuck, my mum was (and is) a devoted recycler.

And I really hate to admit this, but the portion control thing - well, very few of that generation are particularly overweight. I'd rather risk being porky myself though than deprive my guests of a few roasties at lunch or have visitors leave the house feeling hungry!

My dad lives with us, he is eighty one. To put it in perspective, before Christmas he painted the windows for me.

We have too many takeaways. On a good footy night he will take his upstairs and watch the footy in his room. He will have the second half of the takeaway (which has been unrefridgerated in a warm room) for breakfast. Or some pieces of ham he brought in from a meal he had out yesterday, similarly unrefridgerated. How about the times he gets a Kentucky while out, brings it home, eats some out, some for lunch and some for the following breakfast. I don't know how he has survived! Bringing food home so it isn't wasted - no problem. Bringing home food so that sit until it has created a tenancy - problem.

He sometimes complains he has tummy problems. No kidding!

(my dad is lovely, though, and he puts up with me)

My dad won't wear his hearing aids. It drives me mad. The TV is insanely loud.

And he lies about it...

30 yrs in to her 40 a day habit, I meant

Years ago my otherwise very lovely SIL refused some real coffee we had brought as a present to her house because it is carcinogenic . This woman has a 40 a day fag habit so it seemed a bit rich coming from her. At that time she was about 30 years in, and very well so it seemed. It did make me laugh and we took said coffee back home where we enjoyed it.

Yup - they are so fecking RICH. My mum had DF to ferry her around in a huge car all her married life, and NEVER learned to drive herself, but berated us (skin, non-car-owning, bus-using Londoners) for using a taxi for a £5.00 trip from the railway station, when we had a toddler and luggage for a 2 week Xmas visit!

Drying soap. Brown arse flannels. Posting lists back through the letterbox to yourself. This is gold. I have been meaning to go to bed for an hour and just can't. stop. reading!

Dh already rolls his eyes that I can't go to bed until the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer have all been attended to, the downstairs light is on (for the nocturnal wanderers), the thermostat has been turned down. Oh and for washing I have a spare sock drawer and I put the bedding into a pillowcase, I of course know that my ways are just more efficient! Heaven knows what my SIL/DIL will think of me!

My mum and dad are in their 70s and have always done 3 loads of washing A DAY. They live in a big house but there's just the two of them. If she is carrying the washing through to the other end of the house and drops a sock / jumper on the (usually just washed) floor then she washes the whole lot again. It drives me mental.

Also when we were growing up we had to wear shoes at all times - not even slippers - shoes - even if walking from bed to loo in the night. Needless to say I can't bear to wear shoes indoors nowadays and not can my kids. This is ok because they are the grandchildren and can therefore do exactly as they wish.