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?

A lot did, but my Nan is 100 and has better teeth than me. Didn’t have a toothbrush til she was six, and didn’t see a dentist til she was an adult. Diet and routine must have played some part.

Bloody hell!

He would actually ask people for food off their plate whilst they were still eating??

Not my in-laws but my grandparents (my dad’s parents). My dad travelled a lot for work and my grandparents would always try to visit when he was away. I think the relationship was difficult (my dad almost certainly had a form of high functioning autism) but it drove my mum crackers.

My grandad also hated worms. If he found a worm in the garden he would put it over his neighbours’ fence.

Can I ask why?

Apart from the hot drinks in a pan, that's fair enough I suppose

They had few if any gadgets

Life was physically hard

They ate smaller portions than we eat now. For example my gran served two smallish boiled half potatoes and 3 for men (😁). I would eat 3 or 4 smallish boiled potatoes and DH would easily eat 4 or 5.

They definitely did. I bought a set of vintage dessert bowls. They are tiny!

(The blue and white bowl is the dessert bowl from my everyday china.)

My grandma always stood in the kitchen and ate her dinner from what I would class as a small tea plate! Not much bigger than a saucer. (She was always on one diet or another, although she never mentioned it. At one time we were sprinkling bran on everything! Don't know if it was supposed to work or not!) She used to serve us all decent portions!

Same, and I’m 51!

My late MIL (she was a lovely lady and I really miss her) was of the opinion that if you ate one bowl of All-Bran, you had mere seconds to get to the loo before you had an untimely case of diarrhoea and were then on the loo for the next few hours.

I have no idea why, and I never ventured to ask what had caused her to draw that conclusion. 😬

🤣🤣🤣 Oh bless her!!! ❤

My granddad used to give us half a biscuit, in case we didn’t eat it all. Must have had a load of half biscuits somewhere. Also kept his remote control in bubble wrap, on the arm of the chair that had one of them doily things on it. MIL used to work at a school and tell us she didn’t have to go in on Monday as they were having an incest day!

This is a great thread. I have thought of another one. In-laws never have windows open. There were about 12 family members in the front room once and we were sweating like pigs as so hot and no fresh air.

Once I opened window and MIL came in gasping about the window being open!!!

Mine had hers painted shut. She had one window with a lock you could open about an inch when she was boiling things. She was a big fan of smoking, heating and deep frying things as well, the air was awful.
After she died they found loads of damp in the place.

You don't get 'poo germs' flying about if you close the lid before you flush the toilet. I find it odd you protect your toothbrush from this but are fine for these germs to go everywhere else rather than just close the lid!

My sister did this, in at least two houses. Her poor ex husband and children.
She denies it now, and has a new husband, but it’s true.
And weird, but one set of grandparents did the same.

"This is a great thread."
Well, it is if you follow the Mumsnet rule that in-laws are a completely separate species, not just human beings who might -gasp-do things a little differently to us......

In the 2000’s sometime, I was in Cardiff for a week, and that big office had a Tea lady who came round with a big trolley with teas and coffees and sandwiches. Bliss.

Most of us think your choice of words leaves a little to be desired. 🤢

Some older people possibly grew up without bathrooms.
I can remember my Mum’s Dad washing his very long hair, he used brylcream, so you’d never realise how much he had, in the kitchen sink, but had a perfectly luxurious bathroom upstairs.
My Mum’s first house when she got married had no bathroom, although I am forbidden for telling people that gem, it dates back to poorer conditions in the North, with outside toilets and washrooms, in the 50’s and 60’s in some areas, I think .

I wouldn't like it at all. I'd be like Mrs Doyle when Father Ted got her a tea machine.

"Apart from the hot drinks in a pan, that's fair enough I suppose"

Well, it takes longer and needs to be watched. I don't understand why you'd do that if you can use a kettle.

Up until the 21st century, when we visited one set of grandparents we used the outside toilet and washed our hands in the kitchen sink. By then, they did actually have an upstairs bathroom so I don't know why we weren't allowed to use it.

@DilemmaDelilah "Serving cabbage with stew"

I suspect you haven't met many Irish people....🤣

@Royalsingingseal "Have tea breaks at set times at home. 10am and 3pm on the dot everything stops. Kettles on and whole packets of biscuits consumed"

I was brought up like this. I was quite old before I realised you could have a cup of tea or coffee whenever you wanted, and not just coffee at 11, tea at 5 and another hot drink at bedtime.

Just like 'school mums' who are a separate species of Mean Girls with a whole arcane network of cliques and exclusions and side-eye and alphas and pecking orders, despite the fact that the poster complaining about them has only encountered them in the first place because she is also a 'school mum'.

The reason PILs get such a weird treatment on here is because it's a more committed, longterm adult equivalent of going on a sleepover when you were little, and it was the first time you encountered a household who did things completely differently to yours, ate different food, had different rules, used their house differently etc. Two different family systems are brought into contact, and then complicated because some people think that when people get married, they 'marry into' a family, while others don't, and then you add in having children, and there's the perfect opportunity for an interpersonal clusterfuck. The fact that most of the time, most people rub along quite well is testament to people's basic good humour.

This is hilarious and sounds a great idea 😂