What’s a weird thing your In-Laws do?

[FirstFallopians]

I was thinking there about how my BIL maintains that all families are a little bit weird to someone else.

Thought he was being flippant but then I remembered that my in-laws keep their family toothbrushes and toothpaste in a drawer in their bathroom. If you need a bit of floss after Sunday lunch you need to stick your hand into a sticky, damp mass of plastic and bristles.

What slightly weird things do your in-laws do?

Bringing their own water when they visit as they think ours is polluted (London). They’d never drink a cup of tea made with our water. The irony is their water tastes very chemically.

FIL plays the piano really loud every day, when we visit you can tell when he's bored of the conversation as he toddles off to hammer out some honkey tonk.

I'm loving this thread 😂

Any appointment or arrangement is absolutely set in stone. For example, hair appointments are booked weeks in advance and any subsequent invitation for that day (e.g. meeting friends for lunch, grandchildren's school play, etc) is turned down because that's when they have their hair appointment.

Apparently nobody has ever told them that you can re-book things like hair appointments.

The other thing that seems odd to me is the detailed in-depth discussion of ailments. These are a favourite topic of conversation, no holds barred. What I don't know about MIL's sinuses isn't worth knowing. Then there was the time they literally contacted us specially in order to update us that FIL's constipation problem had finally been sorted ("The eagle has landed!").

I actually wish my DP was on Mumsnet now, because there are LOADS of things my family do that he definitely thinks (and rightly so, to be honest) are nuts.

One of his favourites is that whenever my mum comes to stay for a couple of days, she brings all sorts of random stuff with her 'so it doesn't go to waste'. It's usually some satsumas and perhaps a rapidly browning banana. When I ask why she's brought them, she says 'Well, they'll have gone off in the fruit bowl by time I'm back home'. But she never actually eats these things when she's at our house. Last time she said 'They'll have gone off in the fruit bowl by the time I'm back home' DP said 'Oh yes, best to bring them up here so you can watch them go off in our fruit bowl' and she found it hilarious but we all know she will do exactly the same thing next time.

Sometimes she brings a couple of close-to-the-use-by-date Activia yogurts with her. She doesn't eat these either. They just sit in our fridge and then get thrown in the bin after she's gone home.

My dad also used to insist on accompanying DP to the supermarket, because he just likes looking round a supermarket he's never been to before. Then when he got back he'd give me his supermarket feedback and say something like 'That's a right good Sainsbury's you've got there, isn't it?' or 'I see you've got a Timpson's in your Tesco's, then. That's useful.'

This is BRILLIANT

Then there was the time they literally contacted us specially in order to update us that FIL's constipation problem had finally been sorted ("The eagle has landed!").

I am properly hysterical at this 😂

This is one of my favourite things I’ve ever read on the internet.

I can't remember seeing this for a few years so I assume you are not of an age where you remember restaurants used to give individually wrapped toothpicks with your receipt as a courtesy after a meal.

Maybe braces and perfect teeth have meant this is no longer an issue for most people. I'm in my 50s so my teeth never saw any cosmetic dentistry and are a bit crowed and food can get uncomfortably trapped. If I was in someone's bathroom I might steal a bit of floss if there was any lying out just to get rid of any stubborn bits of food.

My PILs are lovely people but if they invite a few people round or we go to see them at Christmas or Birthdays, no one is allowed a drink or anything until everyone has arrived, so everyone just sort of sits around waiting.
Once MILs sister (who lives 4 hours away) was driving up to visit for a long weekend and we'd been invited for a family gathering. She'd given an ETA and we'd all been told to arrive at that time. She was 3 hours late due to traffic etc. (which is fine, it happens) and we all had to sit around for 3 hours with no food and we weren't allowed anything to drink because the "party hadn't started."

My own family are incapable of having conversations in a normal way. Everyone is desperate to share their own stories or news and can't wait so everyone shouts over everyone else and there's always about 4 different stories going on at any one time. I find it hard to deal with despite growing up with it so I feel for anyone joining us for the first time, it must be so loud and bewildering trying to figure out what's going on in amongst this cacophony of voices.

When I was a child we fought a constant battle with cockroaches, so did our neighbours. I was a teenager when we found out the local dominatrix who lived about 5 doors away was breeding them to use in her dungeon. Still makes my skin crawl thinking about those cockroaches. I think that counts as weird even though she wasn't an IL, more of an outlaw.

One of my friends has lovely in laws. When she visits the MIL offers her a chocolate bar to eat in bed, the MIL eats a chocolate bar in bed every night. MIL never offers her DP a chocolate bar, apparently this treat is only for the women in the family. Friend thinks this is hilarious.

FIL who I adore gets a bee in his bonnet if we go out for breakfast and he orders a brew and say a bacon sandwich and they bring his brew first. Why do they always do that he will say. Err because it’s natural to have a drink when eating? We now don’t order him a drink til he has eaten his sandwich. I googled and saw some old advice that drinking whilst eating dilutes stomach a if. Now a debunked theory but I think that must be why.

My mum has no Family photos on display which I find odd.

My Granny used to read out loud the names in the credits at the end of a TV show.

It would go something like this.

Ralph Waite - oh aye him

Tyne Daly - aha, hmmm

Lewis Collins - oh right

Barbara Knox - yessss.

It was utterly bizarre.

Then when it went to the crew etc, it would go like this…

ooooh Assistant Director.

Ah Sound Engineer.

I have never understood people who aren't orderly about their wardrobes

I am the same as your dad. Colours collected together as well

I've never got over a colleague who shared wardrobe space with her husband. So one of his shirts might be in the middle of some of her tops and some of her dresses could be in with his trousers.

Nightmare!

I'm the same.

I love laundry

In a toothbrush holder by the bathroom sink?

They keep an emergency kite in the boot of the car, just in case the perfect gust of wind arrives. They wouldn't want to miss the opportunity.

I do this.
The plate is so I can keep Nipping slices back to the microwave lest they dip below scalding point.
The cutlery is so it will take me longer to eat, thus delaying the moment the meal is over 🍕 😂

Surely you put the lid down?

@LittleGreenDuck "They keep an emergency kite in the boot of the car, just in case the perfect gust of wind arrives. They wouldn't want to miss the opportunity."

That's wonderful!

That's delightfully life affirming!

(Although I am now tempted to keep a saddle in my car in case I come across a pony).

My MIL refused to wash her hair in the shower. She would shower with hair in a shower cap, then go downstairs and wash her hair in the kitchen sink.

Every Sunday she would cook a large traditional roast. Even on a scorching Summer day. Even if a BBQ was planned in the afternoon. Even if no one else would be around to eat it. The Sunday roast had to be cooked. End of.

Watching any type of fantasy/science fiction thing on TV made her feel deeply uncomfortable/agitated and she would need to leave the room.

She couldn't raise her voice. Genuinely she couldn't shout. Just couldn't. Her voice had no inflection at all, actually. Total monotone.

Lemsip as a drink is amazing.

Ive thought if more. MIL wouldn’t replace certain things, especially in the kitchen. So she had only one bowl. All desserts, even with cream, were served on plates. Sometimes you would be offered some Pyrex or a pan to eat cereal out of.
I told DH to buy her a new set but he said she wouldn’t use them. He was right.

Things like biscuits had to be wrapped and put into 2 or 3 Tupperware boxes to make sure they stayed fresh. Anything that had meat in it had to go in the fridge even if unopened - tinned tuna, beans and sausages, hot dogs in a jar.

If you accidentally left any food there she would keep it even if it had gone mouldy/rotten for you to throw out ‘I wasn’t sure I was allowed!’.

Everything you ate had to be the way she liked it or you were meant to order things in restaurants she might like, in case ‘she fancied a taste’. It took me years to stop DH thinking things had to only be eaten exactly the way his mum liked it and no other way.

How lovely! I think that's really sweet.