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?

Aww- my ILs used to stop for a milky coffee and a chocolate biscuit at 11 every day.

My neighbour stops for a small sherry!

No starter for Christmas dinner. In fact, the whole lack of specialness of Christmas dinner. It's served at around 12pm, everyone sits and quickly eats their main and leaves the table (MIL usually says she's not hungry and doesn't even sit down). Pudding comes at some point of the afternoon on your knee.

My DH thought my family were weird for sitting and chatting at the table between courses though 🤷‍♀️.

I've literally never eaten a starter before Christmas dinner. Is this the norm now? Genuine question, not being snidey - I'm in my 50s and it was never a thing people I did when I was growing up. Personally I'd rather save myself for the turkey!

I'm also in my 50s and have never had a starter for our Christmas lunch.
Turkey etc is traditional main meal, Xmas pud is the traditional pudding, what is the traditional starter? Quality Street?

The problem with doing a starter at Christmas lunch is that it's yet another thing for the cook to work out.

Also in my 50s. We've always had starters for Xmas dinner.

Always have a starter as part of xmas day - Its not really lunch its our main meal of the day and served around 2 or 3pm But we call it dinner, later on is sandwiches and what ever amount of quality street you want 😁

We don't have a starter for Christmas dinner. Quite frankly there is enough last minute stuff to do, I dont want to have to be getting up from the table more than I have to, and it would spoil appetites for the main event!

My MIL made a massive fuss about Christmas Day starter (brought in) but then the main was tiny and overcooked.

No, never had a starter for Christmas dinner, but not for any family dinner ever. Growing up, a starter would be only for a special meal like grandparents' anniversary meal at a hotel.
I don't see why you'd need a starter at Christmas with all the other food there is, but then I'm not really interested in starters ever and never choose them in restaurants.

They update you on bodily functions. My MIL will tell me about my FIL's bowel habits and gut issues in far too much detail. They will also give you TMI when they have a cold etc.

I sometimes think I should get a recipe book for 1945 and only eat things in the book. Might help me lose weight.

Put hot meals on plates then put them in the oven to keep warm while they wash and dry the dishes!

Some of these are really sweet (I love the kite in the boot) 🙂My ILs are really normal compared to my family tbh. The only things I can think of are that they have a dishwasher but won't ever use it, they wash items one by one under the kitchen tap. And they store weird stuff in their kitchen like electronics and hairbrushes.

My friend's ILs put their recycling in the dishwasher so it's nice and clean for the bin. This makes me laugh every time I think of it.

I don't think that's at all odd. Certainly not for some items that need to be rinsed out anyway. Obviously most stuff doesn't need washing, but if I have a hummus container or one of those Heinz beans snap pots that typically has clingy or dried-on residue, and there's room in the dishwasher, I would certainly throw those in, rather than giving them a rinse under the tap so they're not smelly in the indoor recycling bin.

Yeah agreed, I feel like a weird-inlaw as I do this too. Things like peanut butter jars - they're impossible to clean so I just whack them in the dishwasher. I thought we were supposed to clean / rinse stuff before it gets recycled?

My GM did that as they were poor so she'd serve everyone else and say she had hers in the kitchen. My mother said sometimes it would just be a slice of bread and butter. My poor granny.

yes you are suppose to do. You recycling should be clean dry loose in the recycling bin and to be as well flatten where possible , i put most things to be recycled like you said peanut butter jars butter dishes, into the dishwasher

My MIL didn’t believe you could recycle anything but glass so would try and pick cardboard etc out from the recycling bin and put it in the normal bin..

DH family (and all his extended family, farmers if that makes a difference) have always done this 10am and 3.30. I have managed to convert the 10am one to toast (usually with jam /marmalade or else a fry in his case but still an improvement on biscuits and cake). Further he was used to eating at 8am breakfast, 12.30 lunch, 6pm tea. Upon questioning because I really hate eating so early at night it turns out that he isn't actually hungry but that's "just when you eat". I didn't manage to change it for years, despite it making sense to eat then and be done working, but now DDs refuse to eat so early either so 2 or 3 years ago a mutiny happened and we said fine, you eat at 6 and we'll all eat at 8/8.30 so he gave up. Now he is actually hungry and tastes his food and enjoys what he eats rather than just shovelling it in and going back to work.

Oh dear. He was eating at a good and healthy time and you've made him eat closer to bedtime. Really not good, particularly as people get older, have more digestive issues, etc.