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?

Well yes, because the BIL said "all families are a little bit weird to someone else", so not talking about your own family, but others.

I love her! 🤣🤣💕

I do that with my DS, when he was a student and now as a young professional - and the same when visiting my parents.

Nothing better than a favourite foodie treat from home - my family love our local pork pies and the farm shop’s homemade jam.

I've never considered this as a “passive aggressive’ act.

And of course, to be in-laws we are all someone else’s parent.

Viewing in-laws as weird is bizarre, as we are the same person that is the parent…

Totally normal! I don't have a kitchen bin, if I remember I buy bin bags, if not its carrier bags all the way but either way they hang in the kitchen and when full are launched into the bed of boyfriends truck for him to deposit in the municipality bins on his way to work🤣 Also I live in a country where bog roll goes in a bin and not flushed down the toilet. Again, carrier bags are useful when I forget to buy the little bin bags 😂

So many of these posts are great but this one has finished me off! I have to stop reading because I’m in bed and my poorly stifled giggling is going to wake DH.

@Jellycats4life we live in the country. When we visit dd in the right season we take her local cherries and strawberries and apples because she loves them. I do hope that's not regarded as passive-aggressive......

At my in-laws, you’re only allowed milk, Pepsi or wine with your dinner. I asked for water once and was told no, because that’s “ever so strange”!

@Okaygoahead My dp insists on sitting in the cinema til the very last credit has rolled because "if it was me I'd want someone to read it." He will be found dead in his seat one day.

Agree. When the sat nav starts "go east...", I'm clueless.

My MIL is perfectly normal. She's 92 and her world has shrunk so conversation is pretty repetitive these days. One of her favourite subjects is a trip to Slovenia she took in the 50s so you have to avoid certain trigger words if you don't want to hear it again (it is a very interesting story the first time you hear it - we can quote it along with her these days). Last year, DH, BIL, SIL and I went to Slovenia together. It was hard!

But I think it's an age thing rather than a weird thing.

I actually love that! It’s entirely at odds with everything else in our house but I hate storing the hoover. It somehow always unravels it’s hose and fights me when stuffing it in the cupboard. Now I want a hoover doll.

And the thing about not showering when ill is actually a carryover from when homes were not centrally heated. It stands to reason that getting all your kit off and getting wet wasn’t such a great idea if you were unwell and it wasn’t so easy to warm up. Hence the staying in bed too. These days resting on the sofa with or without the need for blankets is a perfectly good substitute for a lot of ailments. But that’s because we have our homes much warmer.

My MIL washes and dries her washing up bowl and dish drainer and keeps them in a cupboard by the sink. She also puts kitchen towel under everything in the fridge and over any kind of food that is left left out (in case a particle of dust lands on it). They have to world's smallest kitchen bin, which is emptied whenever something is put in it. I once put a tissue in their empty bedroom bin and when I went back 10 minutes later it has already been emptied (they'd given their room to us when we stayed over).

Does he also have hobbies that could be considered a bit neurodivergent? I've found a LOT of undiagnosed autistic older men tend to like just quietly sitting with people but not interacting

One of her favourite subjects is a trip to Slovenia she took in the 50s so you have to avoid certain trigger words if you don't want to hear it again

This made me smile @CharlotteStreetW1. Although I know how wearing it is when you have to be subjected to the same story over and over for years.

My MIL has a couple of trigger points and my heart does sink when I realise I’m going to have to hear about how she was considered quite good with computers before she retired (including passing her ECDL 😂) and a story about poor BIL having food poisoning at the theatre.

My ex & late MIL was very entitled, became indignant at the slightest provocation. Brought up quite well-to-do but came down in the world. Think Lady Violet Grantham (Maggie Smith ). Her doctor advised cutting down her alcohol consumption a little. She was furious! And she told him. I paraphrase what she said to me:
‘ Drink? Drink! I don’t DRINK! When I get up I have my usual tiny whisky in my tea. I do all my housework in the morning and I like to have a glass of cider while I do it. Before lunch I have a small sherry; with lunch I have wine. Before dinner I have sherry and wine with dinner. I mean, who DOESN’T have wine with meals? ( snort) . After dinner we always have liqueurs with coffee. Before bed I have a small brandy. Drink? How dare he? I don’t drink.’
I SWEAR this is true. When she told me I screwed my face up to look sympathetic but I was dying to laugh. I couldn’t believe my ears.

I would hate that. I have to have water with my meals. I’d take my own water bottle! 😊

Take your own ready made from M&S? Or would that be insulting? 😊

My mum does this. I also say no every time. One of our biggest rows - AKA 'Sandwichgate' - was when I ordered a steak sandwich and chips at a pub one time we went out for lunch and she said 'you won't eat all that' and TOOK MY BREAD. Even though I'd said she couldn't have it and offered to order her some bread as a side dish. She ate my bread without any embarrassment whatsoever. I was LIVID!

This is hilarious!

My MILs is a story about how DH as a teenager once got so drunk he tried to open the front door with a pound coin instead of his keys, I mean the way she tells it you’d think he was the only teenager to have ever got drunk 🙄 if she starts now I have to get up and ‘ go to the loo’ hide somewhere

Also, people lick knives and forks and transfer spittle to plates while eating and they are washed in the sink!

Yes, that is OTT but I am strict about whites being washed alone. I have white sheets, towels etc for years and they are still white. My son and wife have whites which are all grey 😢. I say nothing because I love them to bits and I don’t want my DIL to hate me!

Does anyone ever say “ You always say that. I don’t know why. No one else ever says I look tired.”

are you Laura Ingles Wilder and this is Little House on the Prairie?