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?

My parents have only not been to the same self catering cottage since 1984 because the owners sold that one and bought another. Instead they go to the new one since that happened. It's in the same area so they go to the same beach (even when raining) and do the same walks etc.
My siblings go too.
It's nice but it isn't that fantastic!

I think the oddest one with my IL is sugar. Put sugar on (non-sugar added) cereal and you'd think you were suggesting adding illegal drugs. But they have sugar on Christmas pudding. Dh now denies he ever did, but he did for years.

Thought of two more, which I'm so used that I'd forgotten aren't really normal. All of my ILs are very open about their bowel habits. A bowel movement is known as "entering the toilet". So we'll be sitting there eating dinner and one of them will say they need to go to the toilet. Fine. Will come back and say "I just entered the toilet" and everyone will look on in expectant. anticipation. Details will be given, such as whether it was hard/loose, to what extent there was straining, stool length (!) and then they will say they now need to rest/lie down. This will prompt someone else to say "last week when I entered the toilet....". The most bizarre time was when BIL recalled in front of extended family the time his soon ate sunflower seeds, which had caused a "backlog" and BIL had to use a cotton bud to 'pick' away at the poo until it was ready to move. The son was a teen at the time, and if I had a pound for every time I'd heard this story I would be rich!

MIL and SILs are obsessive about organizing things,you can't just sit and watch a TV programme, your hands have to be busy. MIL could produce a massive bag stuffed with plastic bags and everyone would sit around and flatten and fold each one and organize them into piles according to size, colour, thickness etc. No clothing can ever go in the recycling, everything is cut up, zips/buttons taken off and the fabric cut up into cloths for spills or cleaning. DH always critisize me for not having a "cloths drawer" that I've cut up of his old holey vests.

My family are very odd regarding formalities. I wouldn't be able to call into my DMs house if I was going past without a prior appointment. They wouldn't dream of coming over without a formal invitation, and 48 hours before I'll get a "I just want to confirm that Sunday 6pm for a cup of tea is still on?". On the day I'll get a text to confirm they've left their house and we should expect them soon. I feel much more relaxed with dh's family!

This is so cute. My dad used to take his own cutlery to macdonalds

They used to put everyone's post at their place on the dinner table, then tell them off for opening post at the table 😂

If you were there for breakfast they'd lay the table and give everyone just an inch of orange juice in a little glass (you couldn't have extra!)

Nobody ever goes downstairs in pyjamas or dressing gown. Everybody showers and gets fully ready for the day before going down ( I appreciate many people might do this but I find it odd)

Yes, not my ILs but ILs of ILs (IYSWIM) breakfast is followed by elevensies, twelvsies, dinner, threesies then teatime, sixies, sevensies and finally supper around 9pm.

Each has to be the "right" type of snack for the hour accompanied by tea and a cigarette.

Somewhere in Italy. I'm sure its nice but still there are lots of places in Italy to visit that are nice.

They sometimes go on other holidays also (they love a cruise) but don't always like to bother leaving the ship as they don't like beaches or shopping.

Minus the fags, this sounds like my sort of household 🐽

They have a thing about gifts and gift wrap. On Christmas they all sit round in a circle opening one present at a time and it takes hours - literally - as it's a large family.

They save their gift wrap and re-use it for years and years. I don't think it's an environmental thing, it's a sentimental thing. Some of it is very tatty.

I don't intend these as criticisms btw!

@istoodonlegoagain You win!

My long haired teens / young adults will shower with their hair in a cap and then wash their hair separately. Apparently they don't like the feel of the hair products/ wet hair on their backs and the hair becomes heavy.

Buy the Daily Mail.

It's about how things seem weird because they are different to how our family does it. Our parents and siblings don't fall into that category because they are our family!

I think it’s always quite rude to say someone looks tired, no matter who it’s coming from! Basically they’re saying you look a bit shit, lol

So you know “big” kitchen utensils like your whisks, spatulas, slotted spoons and stuff? They keep them in a cupboard rather than a drawer.

FIL would never go into a shop to buy something for himself. He'd give money to MIL and wait outside.

Shopping at the supermarket,- picking things off the shelf and handing it to the other person to put in the trolley, picking thing out of the trolley and handing it to the other person to put on the checkout converyor belt, then picking things up after they've been scanned and handing to the other person to put into a shopping bag.

Believing that Mr Kipling Fruit pies count as one of your 5 a day

Turning the heating off for the summer at Easter even if it is below freezing

Usually root veg in a stew but you need your greens!

@istoodonlegoagain you have also reminded me about clearing out my late MIL’s house I found a black bin liner full to the brim with zips that had been cut out of the family’s old clothing for the past 60 years. I honestly don’t know if she had ever reused any zips. Still laughing at ‘entering the toilet’😂

I think weird is a matter of what your use too.

I was raised by a semi deaf and autistic mother and I inherited hearing issues myself... I find shouting completely normal even for just every day basic conversation like 'wheres the butter?'. Our house was just constant noise growing up. I find it bizarre some people are so delicate that anything over a hushed tone will scar a child for life.

IL however NEVER shout or raise their voice at all... problem is they will not discuss anything that could lead to an argument or raised voices. Its a passive aggressive nightmare of backhanded compliments and people tap dancing on egg shells.

I can't stand it... will someone just please shout 'fuck off' at someone and relieve the god damn 40 year tension. It's probably a lot healthy to have the argument than to all stew, repress it and all drink yourselves to death (a LOT of middle class functional alcoholism in that family used to avoid having that talk).

My fil has visions of being on master chef. Mil survives on thin air. When we go to stay he insists on cooking for us but there is never enough food, ever! Eg. 2 pieces of fish between 5 people I always take a bag full of food and stash it in our room to top up the minuscule portions we’ve all been served. Ironically I don’t think I eat that much but half a piece of fish, an ice cream scoop of mashed potato and 3 artfully arranged green beans doesn’t really cut it!

The fact that at 11am on the dot NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE they have a coffee break. They could be ten minute drive from destination, but if it hits 11am they pull over for coffee and arrive late at destination.

My inlaws do this as well, I still find it so weird and unfestive

I think this is very reasonable considering your son's sensory issues but it does make me think about how many of the weird little (or big) quirks being shared here are down to people coping with undiagnosed neurodivergence etc. My MIL and FIL have quite maddening and bizarre habits but over the last few years MIL has become surprisingly open to the possibility of FIL in his early 70s being autistic.

She used to be extremely defensive about that sort of thing and you'd never have dared suggest it to her, but she's picked it up from somewhere and it seems to have really helped her understand him. But that's after 40+ years of marriage. Nobody was looking for it when he was a child or a young man, and even if they had been I doubt his family would have been at all open to it.

Mine have this weird thing where only the men pour wine/alcohol. So my SIL will say to my husband "could you please pour me some wine", even if she's closer to the bottle than he is. He doesn't know where it stems from

I have the best one...

Not me but a friend went round to his GFs for a Sunday lunch with her family early on in their relationship. They offered him a drink, wine, beer etc and he said oh no I'll just have some water.

And they just pointed to a glass of water on the kitchen counter, he thought it was a bit weird but took it and had a sip and put it back. Then he saw his GF Sis come in and take a sip and put it back...

Basically they have 'family water' a glass of water they leave available on the side and you drink water out of there rather than have your own glass....

It's more hygenic to keep toothbrushes in a drawer in the bathroom.. faeces germs can travel far.. so if no covers on toothbrushes it's the best place.

According to research by Dr. Maria Geisinger, professor of periodontology at the University of Alabama School of Dentistry, 60% of toothbrushes left in the bathroom contain faecal matter and bacteria dangerous to human health such as Serratia, Escherichia coli, Giardia, Salmonellosis, just to name a few.