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

My dad has a wordprocessed shopping list, typed up from the one he wrote walking round Tescos, so that everything's written in the order you'd find it in the shop

what does he do when they move things???

Oh, this is the thread that keeps on giving. Brown arse flannels^?

Butter war?

But LeQueen's endless goodbye ritual is another reminder of my PILs. It used to take us 90 minutes to get out of the house, with endless wittering and fussing about goodness knows what and multiple trips to the fridge (or the 'freezer room' - yes, they really had a whole room dedicated to the freezer that they had built for that purpose when they extended the house...) for various left-over food odds and ends each in specialised tupperware boxes. MUCH discussion of the route (um, we live in the same place we did before PIL, we know how to get there...), the weather, whether we needed sandwiches for the journey (it's 20 miles away, I think we'll survive!).

But bless him, my FIL often used to give us a lift home before we had our own car, even though the traffic was completely unpredictable and could be nightmarish (West London), then would refuse to come in for a drink or anything and turn round and head home. He was lovely.

When DF died in 1994, we found 25 years worth of 'Which' magazines tied up in bundles in the attic. For consultation purposes whenever the purchase of new White Goods was required (every 30 years or so...)

The special towels...are you related to the Dentons?

White for hands, Brown for feet, green for torso, thighs and seat, And in the cupboard Neath the stair, you'll find the red. For pubic hair....

Loving this thread btw. Only slightly recognise in laws, fortunately! :)

My mum keeps a mug of water in the microwave when not in use after being told 20 odd years ago when microwaves were new, that if they were switched on with nothing in it some sort of nuclear fusion/hadron collider thing would happen and the street would have to be evacuated!

She is only 52!

Bedding on their bed is washed twice a week. Bedding in other rooms, who knows? Once a year. Top and bottom sheets are made out of Velcro or post it glue. Shiney single duvet with a king size, shiney ornamental top cover. Very complicated pillow and cushion arrangement that mean you would have to sleep sitting up if you left them on the bed at night. Bed looks lovely in a Babs Cartland way but smells of uncle x's aftershave.

Met oh when I was a teen. Not allowed to stay in the same room until we were married at 34. We live in a different city. They didn't visit for 10 years because we weren't married and/or rented. Visit now we married and own our own home. We still start in separate rooms in their house. They only have single beds and I am bloody minded. Ffs at 34 I had known dh 20 years. They are not religious. They were lax 70/80s parents .

Hope you got over it quickly, Sunnywithshowers...

zapotek - have probably seen the same info film - just don't get so paranoid as the stress might be worse for you than any minor infection.

Have to admit my toothbrush, toothpaste, and shaving items are away in a cupboard (it is a small bathroom, only about 10 by 4, in a 3 up {3 includes bathroom!}, 2 down with no hall, and a landing that's about 10 by 3).

He's brushing his damn teeth again
Do we need to go clubbing or something

My mil has to leave the microwave door open when not in use. No idea

my BIL used to be a microwave service engineer in the very early days. he once arrived at some kind of catering establishment to find the microwave door open & a member of staff glued to the wall (because the microwaves were escaping...)

My dad has a spreadsheet for his CDs

Oh no, dh has to brush his teeth before having his pre bed wee. I have just noticed this. Is it the start? He's 34

This thread is hysterical and has stopped me doing exam revision which I really need to do as the brain doesn't seem to work as well as it once did (I'm a very old student!)
My 75 year old DPs have some funny little ways:-
Dishwasher and washing machine must be turned off at the mains and the water turned off every time, just in case there is a flood.
A record must be kept of the cost of petrol, how many litres etc so that a running average of the mpg can be calculated. My DF recently asked the mpg of my car and I thought he would have apoplexy when I said I didn't know and what's more I didn't care!
Old rubber gloves must be cut up to make rubber bands, large ones from the hand parts and tiny ones from fingers.
Every household purchase eg kettle, toaster, mattress must have date bought written on it so when a replacement is needed detailed explanations can be given to all and sundry about how good/useless it was, all of these things would have only been bought after lengthy consultations of the bible Which magazine.
A couple of weeks ago I was moaning to my DM about how I hated that you can't buy normal tungsten lightbulbs anymore, she then produced a bag of bulbs which she had taken out and replaced with energy savers, god knows why she kept them if she was never going to use them again, and EVERY bulb had the date it was first used written on it, some from 1999. Still work fine though!
The funny old things

My grandad used to be convinced we would lose anything not surgically attached to us. He used to enter lots of competitions and he once won a hold-all type bag from Kit Kat, which he gave to me - after he had written my full name across it in three inch high letters, in black marker. My mum has inherited this though, when she goes on holiday she has her name on her suitcase in huge letters.

Ponders, in my mum's world there are only flat sheets.

Who was it who had in laws who demanded soup as a starter every time they came?
Made me laugh

Consider this, laydeez! 3 years ago, 30 years after I first left home, DH, DS and I moved back in with my Aged Mama. Yup, it's my childhood home as well, complete with my dollies and 1960s schoolbooks books in the attic.

DM and lovely DF (who died nearly 20 years ago) were both born in the 1920s and from the wartime/rationing generation. When we moved in, nothing had been thrown out for 20 years and nothing had been renovated/decorated or repaired for 30 years. It's a v.v. large house with masses of storage space. I can relate to EVERY ONE of the above posts!

It still drives me dotty - the saving of crisp packets, the mouldy shite in the fridge, the hoarding of, well, everything that can possibly be hoarded - and the obstinate absolute refusal to engage with any post-1960s technology, (such as cassette players and VCRs anyone?) far less 21st century witchcraft such as mobile phones and DVDs .

Sadly, Mum is becoming v. frail and forgetful, so the balance of power has shifted. She can't remember what she's put in the fridge so I can swoop and discard without too much grief. We can also insist that houshold stuff gets repaired/replaced now on Elf and Safety grounds because DH does a good line in Pseudo-Authoritative 1950s Bloke-Talk which generates a sort of Pavlovian-Submissive response. (She won't listen to me because I am, apparently, still only about 15 and hormonal. I am really 51 and menopausal, but whatever.)

"zapotek, as TC said, just close the lid before flushing"

That would mean touching the lid (I'm joking- I think).

I don't really know if I'm that worried about it I've just got into a habit.

DP wipes his hands on tea towels and I hate that. I have to have a towel in the kitchen. MInd you he uses that for wiping the floor and if I catch him it goes in the wash- that's not unreasonable is it?

Slippers how could forget the slippers which they now bring every time they come (even if its just for the day). Just because I once said my dad was rather heavy on his foot...

And there was something else... The tones on their mobile phones. Every time they send a text, DH or I suggest they turn them off but they are not keen, they need to know they've pressed the button. Apparently seeing a letter appearing isn't enough

Are we all related? Surely there can't be thousands of elderly couples like this? Or was I wrong to find my PiLs' behaviour odd?

They tick lots of the boxes: stinginess with vegetables, obsession with routine, inability to leave anything unwashed-up for five seconds, ability to make the simplest decision (what to eat, where to go) into an hour-long conversation...

Luckily my parents do very little of this, so I'm hoping I'll escape.

My mil has to leave the microwave door open when not in use. No idea.

And they'd rather have a kitchen freezing because the back doors open than have FOOD SMELLS

curry-eater makes a very good point:

but it is a very strange companion piece to the "lax parenting of the 60s and 70s" one, isn't it? How can those crazy, drink-driving, chain-smoking, bar-fly hell-raisers have turned into these people?

It's age, isn't it. It's going to happen to us all.

Necessitating a further hour of shocked, stilted conversation, standing in the hall, wearing our coats with the front door wide open...

Poor you, LaQueen. As for the towel to bite on....

At least it seems to have reduced a smidgen, or has it (?)

My MIL is unlike many on here - she cooks a lot of food. And then gives it to DH and I.

She turned up at ours a couple of days after Christmas with Xmas pudding, brandy sauce, a melon and various sundry foodstuffs. Most of which were binned as I had norovirus and couldn't eat a damn thing.

DH has just reminded me that he has a dishwasher loading protocol. Oh arse.

zapotek, as TC said, just close the lid before flushing

your toothbrush is much more of a risk than your towel anyway (just sayin...)