Jesus Christ, I'm on holiday with my mother and VERY close to one of those parent-child divorces

[MotherNaturesBounty]

Can you still get one of those in your 30s?

I've got my kids, my sister's kids and my mother and she's the worst! She cannot sit still

Went on holiday with the inlaws once (a jolly party of 6 adults and 4 young children). By 4pm on the first day FIL was sulking and refusing to talk to one of his DILs because of some mild discipline she gave to her son (who was behaving badly and had been warned). Never again!

@kin432, I feel your pain. Many childhood memories of my dad driving everywhere by the power of his road atlas, for those few hours he was a god among men

@LostInTime

Gracious, can you imagine Mary's threads though? She'd be troll hunted incessantly.

"Pregnant but we haven't even DTD! My in laws are going to be so angry"

"DP doesn't believe my baby is a gift from God and wants a DNA test as soon as baby arrives"

"Anyone else sick and tired of the palaver over this census?"

"Urgh, AIBU to expect the heavenly host could at least sort drinks for themselves and run the vacuum round when they drop by? I'm 36+2 and roasting now "

Baby names: Jesus or Slithery? (for the more ancient MNers around)

This is comedy gold xx

@kin432

JustGiveMeGin you are so right, it's generational, my husband is rubbish at routes. I think in-depth knowledge of major and minor roads in the U.K. may be the 70s equivalent of getting 100k views on Tiktok. My dad was also a trainspotter in his youth (to the Mecca of Crewe and the Cricklewood train sheds).

Stopping at a service station would be viewed as a failure by my father (not sure why); it would be a parsimonious packed lunch gently sweating in the sun or the extra half an hour to the aforementioned cafe. When I mentioned it to my husband, he said "oh yes, I remember that shitty little place your dad insisted we went to". It could be a very long week but I love them dearly.

Please tell me you have packed gin? All the gin.

Update. We have arrived. My father insisted on bringing the largest AA atlas I've ever seen. He's now conducting a full retrospective analysis of the route we took (despite not actually getting lost). He's started "you know when we were on the A44, we should have taken a left to Chipping Norton".

He also deliberately changed the Oxford park and ride which I'd entered into my sat nav just as we were about to arrive so we had no choice but to agree to an emergency consultation of his motoring tome.

I don't really like gin but please send me all your gin.

Good luck kin.

My DGM used to plan all her car journeys to avoid, as far as possible, all right hand turns. The well-thumbed Atlas was also a feature.

do the AA not still do those turn by turn printed routes?? You could get one for your Dad @kin432

iirc they did the reverse journey on the other side of the page, there'd be no need for Chipping Norton Regrets then.

I am really really bad at right and left but so long as you pay attention to my pointing I can navigate you anywhere with a map, I used to be In Charge of the AA routes because my mother was not allowed to touch them for fear she'd flip them over and send us back home!

My friend has just returned from a holiday with ILs, her DH and theirt 2 DCs. She was messaging me saying that she was being largely ignored (GPs had not seen the children for ages for obvious reasons). I thought she might be a bit over-senstive- until they all drove back to their holiday cottage leaving her in the pub loo because no-one noticed she was not with them.

Oh god my mother!

We went to visit my recently bereaved sister overseas. I had a 4 month old baby. Mum took baby reluctantly at mealtimes on 20 hour flight so we could eat and couldn't give him back quickly enough. Fine but it stung hearing her tell everyone how much she had helped us by looking after him on the flight so we could have a break.

Once there I ended up cooking dinner for six every night. Mum never took a turn as she opted out of any discussions of what to have for dinner by saying "oh don't worry about me, I'll just have yesterday's leftovers." Which of course had been cooked by me the day before. But as she was not eating the dinner on the night it was cooked she thought it meant she wasn't eating dinner and didn't have to cook. When I finally blew up at her I received utter hurt bewilderment.

She also refused to use my sister's washing machine and hand washed her own clothes. This meant that a) she never put a wash on for anyone else (did I mention we were there to help after a sudden bereavement?) and b) she used all the hot water with her don't-mind-little-me handwashing so my poor sister had to have cold showers.

Aaaaargh!

Then my other sister went out six months later and my mum PAID for her tickets.

Do the AA not still do those turn by turn printed routes?? You could get one for your Dad

Ah yes, I remember those. A little dangerous when you were trying to drive at the same time as trying to re-find and read line 23 on page 4. The thought of your mum flipping them over and driving the wrong way is priceless 😂 As is the lady avoiding right turns... But I think my dad would consider an AA route plan an affront to his title as the king of routes, he'd far rather spend 30 minutes writing directions out by hand (rather futile as his writing is illegible).

Today's tour of Cotswold villages had to start at 9am as my dad is convinced that the coach parties descend from 11-3. We'd done three villages by 10.30. My resistance has weakened and I've just accepted that my dad takes more pleasure from directing us while buried inside his ludicrously oversized AA atlas than the place itself. I've started pretending I don't even have a satnav in my car. We're currently watching Pointless before having tea on the dot of 6.30 as a holiday is no reason to break their usual routine.