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?

Monday is washday in our house too, at least for bedding. With four kids, every day is washday when it comes to clothes and sportskit.

But I agree. My own DM is in her eighties and long widowed, but she still insists that Monday is washday, Tuesday she does the windows etc etc. I guess it made sense to have such a strict regime once, but seems redundant when she rattles around the house on her own for most of the day.

I think we must be the weird in-laws 😬Toothbrushes are kept in the drawer so they don't get covered in poo particles. And who goes digging through someone else's drawers looking for floss!? Carry your own!

Never dental floss, which is what you mentioned. Just not a thing.

You keep saying it is unusual and weird. I'm saying it isn't, it is just different, in any family, not particularly the in-laws.

Oh dear God. That's borderline psychopathy! I may be a bit of a wine snob.......😁

That's the reason there are toast racks, to allow the toast to cool, air to circulate and stay crisp, before being spread with butter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_rack#:~:text=By%20maintaining%20air%20gaps%20between,and%20shape%20follows%20prevailing%20fashion.

My friend's mum does this too. Drives her wild.

My ex ILS used to kind of force me to shower with my ex H. The first time it happened I felt so weird. Me and ex H went for a shower together then ex BIL and SIL went. They were rich so nothing to do with saving money. Every time we stayed

You cannot prepare food or mention imminent food preparation or purchasing without my mum wanting in on it. She doesn’t say she would like some, she just heavily hints and behaves in such a way that it is obvious she would really like some. Lots of neck craning to look, etc. This is regardless of what it is or time of day. Much like a seagull.

My ILs are all incredibly negative and anxious and struggle to function in life. Lots of eggshells, last minute cancellations and navigating hurt feelings. Exhausting. I treat them kindly but sometimes privately wish they would just buck the fuck up.

Washed dishes with clothes washing powder. Never bought a vacuum cleaner (they weren’t poor, so could afford one) so used to sweep the carpets with a broom. Had curtains that were just for show in their lounge, so they were permanently open. They were too small to close even if you wanted to. Fed the dog raw mince meat on the kitchen floor, no dog bowl. Put sugar in wine. They were just thoroughly weird.

My late parents in law loved travelling and had travelled the world but they insisted on taking tins of corned beef, jars of meat spread , a loaf, teabags, dried milk and a tub of lurpak in their luggage. So if they didn't fancy the meal that the hotel offered, they could make themselves a sandwich.
I asked them if it would just be simpler to go self catering and they looked at me like I'd grown another head.
They also shared one of whatever takeaway they were eating, so for example if they ordered a chow mein from the Chinese, it would just be that, no rice or sides etc, just one lonely chow mein, which they would share, leaving a portion for my dad in law to take to work for his lunch.
Even if eating out, say a McDonald's. The sight of my mum in law cutting a regular big Mac meal burger in half and dividing up the fries for her and my dad in law was something else.
If they had a hot meal for lunch, then they would have something cold for dinner and vice versa.
So, if they'd shared a regular big Mac meal at lunch, then it would be salad or a sandwich for dinner.
Sunday dinner would be pork chop, mash and tinned peas. No deviation, ever.
Tea and coffee was always served in a cup and saucer of the correct size, two sips of the coffee and the cup was empty! No refill. I always asked for tea so I got six sips.
They were great, but lord their dining habits were weird.

Whatever MIL is eating she’ll pick bits off her plate with her fingers and eat it then lick her fingers and then with the same just licked fingers poke something on my or DHs plate and say ‘that looks nice’ and she thinks we’re weird for telling her to stop touching our food, it puts me right off whatever I’m eating.

My MIL does this @CaramelMac and it drives me crazy.

Also when we eat out she asks what I'm having and asks to share it because she's not very hungry. Every bloody time. I say no every time. She then orders her own and finishes it.

My now ex in laws didn't open their mail unless it was obviously a birthday card. It lead to a car almost being repossessed, the gas being cut off over Christmas and so many missed hospital appointments.

NO WAY. 🤢

Furniture hoarding.

They have an outbuilding where they keep the furniture from their frequent redecorating.

Said furniture is offered out frequently. Not to keep. They might want the ten seater dining table they haven't used since the house move back.

They gave us a garden table to keep. Told us strict care instructions - must be taken in when it rains. Since I'm not taking a garden table that can't handle a little rain in Britain, I apply a weatherproof stain.

When I tell them it's like I chopped it up for firewood....

There’s an episode of Keeping up Appearances where Hyacinth posts a letter to Elizabeth, even though she only lives next door, because “I like people to know I use first class stamps”. Maybe they’re channelling Hyacinth! 😁

It was my MIL, who never stopped to think what she might be showing, so as to preserve her modesty. She wasn't huge, but had a largest midriff. She wasn't one for wearing long dresses or skirts. So when she needed to get down to do something, she would bend over, rather than get down on her hands and knees. Consequently most times when she did this the rear of her dress or skirt would ride up, leaving all on display. When we had or first child she came and stayed for a couple of weeks. Even our next door neighbour commented and laughed at want she had seen that day. Apparently, she had been polishing our step and had been showing the world what she had on underneath.

MIL & FIl (and DH) seem to think they have made a new best friend in anyone from customer services. ‘FiL - I phoned Sky, spoke to a lovely chap, Barry, he was brilliant, really good at his job, sorted everything out, I said to him I would always ask for him to do all my dealings with Sky from now on’ - then will phone DH and tell him all about Barry, MIL will be in the background agreeing as though Barry is a relative who just got a degree.

Every time someone ever mentions Sky from now one, FIL will say, ‘I know a bloke, Barry there who I always go to’. As though Sky don’t have 1000 people working there.

Petty I know but it drives me nuts.

One time DH happened to speak to the same advisor twice at the council and fuck me it was news for weeks in the family 🤣

This is brilliant 😂

Oh my parents do the Lemsip as a drink thing too, if I say I've strained my neck muscles they will tell me to have a nice hot lemon before bed🤣

I also have an emergency kite in my boot but I do have an 8 year old so slightly more understandable perhaps!

My in-laws are lovely but they also do a lot of things that I quietly consider to be crazy, using the oven as a fridge and leaving meat in it overnight, never ever throwing anything away and insisting that you must wash your car before going to a wedding otherwise you will let the side down to name but a few.

However, as lifelong non-tea drinkers, when DP brought me home they also went out and bought mugs and tea bags to make me feel at home so I really can't complain about the little stuff!

No-one ever used to answer the door at my ILs. They were the most welcoming and generous family in the world but everyone was expected to just let themselves in. Regardless of whether you were expected to visit or not. Took me a few months to get my head round that one. I used to phone then-
DP from my car and make him come down because I thought it was rude to just wonder in and head upstairs to his room!
Even now (ILs passed but house still in the family) you find random people meandering into the house on the lookout for one of the many brothers. So funny 🤣

My own DM used to iron all the men's boxers, tea towels and bedding. She only stopped when her best friend suggested she needed to find a new job 🤣

A little bowl of melon balls before evening meal, every day. "Are you ready for your melon balls now?". I find it very quaint.

Using the dishwasher as a storage space for the recycling and nothing else.

Commenting over and over again throughout a meal in a restaurant "This portion would do us both wouldn't it, we should have just got one". Please just let me enjoy the meal without feeling like a glutton for wanting to eat all the food on my plate.

My ex-bf's Dad would never greet me with a "hello, how are you? What have you been up to" etc instead he would just announce the most recent thing he'd bought. "Come on in and see my new desk / kitchen counter / BBQ". I never really knew how to respond.

My MIL never turns a light on. We literally enter in to the gloom, and sit there as the day, and the room, gets darker. She eont turn the TV on, and Ive learnt to take a bag of books, games, colouring etc. as she has nothing in her house for them to play with.
My toddler doesn't want to go in, she doesn't like it, so thank goodness it's only a couple of times a year!
She also never gets anything in for food, and only ever sees the negatives of something. She's miserable and exhausting!

Was your MIL a HE teacher? I had one that was neurotic about keeping cheese in its wrapper. She said the reason we had so many gay men was because people wrapped it directly in clingfilm. Apparently the clingfilm was transferring oestrogen into the cheese and all these mums making lunch box sandwiches were turning their young sons into homosexuals 🤔