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?

I agree. This is not odd! it’s genius!

Mine ( both passed) so were married just after WW11 ..
Always had a cup of tea and biscuits after evening meal as a pudding/ desert . The biscuits were always kept in the display unit in the living room.
MIL would always make a pile of chips and then ask what you want with them.. by time decided the chips would be cold.
The cats ( usually on average 3 at any one time) always had to have a cheese triangle ( dairy lee only) each cut into bits every night a 9pm.
They would not throw anything away .. because it would always come in handy.. l mean just about everything.. for example empty butter tubs were washed and stored in the cellar .
They were mortgage free having bought the house outright . Both working.. him a cheif engineer.. they bought the best food and had a new car / motorhome/ motorbike etc..but hardly went anywhere in them.

Not married but partner's parents are never ever on time for anything - 2pm on Sunday could really mean anytime before midnight on Sunday.

They wash the pets dishes with the normal dishes. Puts me off food tbh.

My parents drive my partner mad as 2pm Sunday means 2pm Sunday. They are probably too much of sticklers for time.

My partner grew up in the city so didn't know his neighbours terribly well whereas my parents are country folk and grew up along side their neighbours, everyone knows everyone. My parents hates the fact that if goes anywhere with my dad, that my dad stops to talk to everyone he knows for about 10 mins each. A simple trip to the garage once took 2 hours. They get on but it tests partner's patience.

My MIL has to do her laundry on a Monday come rain or shine. It may be blazing sunshine on Tuesday or Wednesday so she could get it all dry outside, but no - everything has to be done on a Monday. She won’t ever make other plans on a Monday as it’s wash day.
I find this so restrictive, but I guess it gives her comfort.
I have always suspected there are other things at play with MIL - neurodiversity - as the ND traits are strong in her, my DH, my SIL and the younger generation of the family also

My MIL (and the whole family) drink their tea very hot. I don't, she knows that, but she serves it very hot to everyone, fair enough. However, as I can't drink it at that temperature and need to wait until it cools down slightly so I can start on it, I am always "late" drinking it and she wants to take my cup away, asks whether I don't like it, and we have to go through the same series of conversation steps each time... in the end I get to keep my cup, drink my tea, while everyone else has been done for a while.

I sort of do the opposite of early clearing and I wonder whether it's disgusting to others. At dinner, my daughter and I drink each a glass of water. That glass is used only then, and only for that one drink. I often leave the empty glasses there for the following night, as they are not really dirty, and rinse them and refill at dinner the following night. Of course I don't do this if we have guests or at anyone else's house. After two evenings' uses, I put them in the dishwasher.

I see! God, what I would give for there to be a "tea lady" at my work. The idea of any business funding that is unfathomable to me now.

This reminded me of my grandma, whom I adored. I think she used to get colds frequently and was absolutely against eating or drinking cold foods. So she would serve everyone lukewarm water in their drinking glass (the plus of this is that I learned very early on to always get my own cold glass of water).

A container of yogurt would be taken out of the fridge, dunked in a bowl of warm water, and served to you after 5-10 minutes. There was no way around that. Now I'm an adult I enjoy my straight-out-of-the-fridge-cold-inducing yogurt!

I do t leave our toothbrushes in the bathroom either

eveytime you flush faecal matter gets thrown out of the toilet all over the place. I am using toothbrushes which you then put in your mouth

i mean I’m with your in laws here….

I have a small gap between two of my back teeth which means I often need to floss after I eat something really chewy. MIL knows this.

They're my family- it’s no weirder than asking my mum for some? Don’t worry though, I’ll offer MIL the 0.7 cent for the bit of floss I used next time I’m over.

I live my mil, but she won't use anything given as gift! Cause then it would be ruined.

For example she uses a paper diary, for appointments and lists. I don't use one. I was given a diary as a free gift and said oh here you go, you wil use this I won't. Twelve months later I see it unused in the cupboard. She said oh no that was too nice to use! Will now it's wasted as it's the wrong year.

So funny other people mentioned the strict time thing with coffee and tea.

Oh and you have five minutes to drink it. Dare put it down it gets washed up.

I think it's probably those of us who don't have set times for tea breaks that are strange. When I was younger tea breaks were a set part of the working day that had apparently been fought for by the unions even further back. I grew up on a farm and the men always came into the kitchen for a teabreak morning and afternoon at set times.

I don't drink tea and my Mum can't cope, she doesn't like me pouring myself a drink of water (because if you make tea you must offer to everyone before you put the kettle on) but she doesn't know what to offer me when she makes tea for everyone else. Oh, and it's not biscuits it's home bakes with the tea.

Married and divorced twice, so two sets of in-laws, both now deceased. Second pair were sweethearts, first pair father-in-law was surprisingly normal, mother-in-law was a vile judgemental sanctimonious old harpy who made my life a misery.

Way too many examples of her revolting behaviour and attitudes to choose from, but the one that hurt me most was when she clapped eyes on DD1 for the first time, and announced with massive relief in her voice, "Oh yes, it looks as if she is definitely a <DH and in-laws surname>."

I used to be guilty of this! Would get bath bombs and nice shower gel etc and not use them because they were nice so seemed to think I needed an 'occasion' for them 🙈 what actually happened was my DH when we moved in together was like wft do you have like 50 bath bombs and 20 bottles of shower gel thats 5 years out of date! I realised then I was an idiot and now use whenever 😂

My absolutely gorgeous in laws do Royle Family type conversations that can go on for ages. Someone shares a very banal comment (imagine "I was up at Tesco today and the car park was very busy"), others get called in to the room to hear it, the original hearer relays the story, then the original teller has to tell it again. Then there's much laughing and shock and surprise as another person tells their story of visiting the Tesco car park etc. etc. It can go on for ages, everyone surprised and delighted with the latest Tesco carpark update and resharing the experience they just told you about. It's not a dementia thing, they all do it all the time.

They are also completely allergic to the idea of causing a fuss or putting anyone out. But in doing so it'll put you out even more. For example it's PIL's birthday. We all know we'll do something that weekend, even if just calling in for a present and some cake. But no one will arrange anything because no one wants to put anyone out. So instead you're holding the entire weekend open because no one will want to inconvenience you by suggesting a place or time.

I totally agree that all other families are a bit weird. MIL is obsessive about being updated on a journey. She wants told when you leave, then on the regular will text asking for updates. We ignore it mainly and the sisters get involved seeking the updates, and we all participate in this anxious drama. Recently I found she has an app tracking some of the older grandkids and will check every few mins following them on a short flight etc. In contrast my mum is an advocate of hitchhiking and could do with a bit more risk aversion so there’s a lot of weirdness about.

catering at my MILs is a total faff. She hosts the extended family (about 10 adults, 5 kids) several times a year. It involves major too- ing and froing of her and about 5 other adults back and forth inside the kitchen , between the kitchen and dining room, etc, chopping and processing food for hours! I have learned to stay out of it as I find it frustrating and inefficient. ( I do the cleaning up). When it’s time to serve everyone takes an age to wander to the table, then it’s still up down up down back and forth to kitchen for goodness knows what. MIL is rarely at the table as she is moving around pointlessly.

when I host the same set of people, it’s all organised just by me. I have a stream of people to the kitchen who can’t believe it’s all organised and in hand ( and I send them back to socialise with each other in southern room and not bother me. Everyone sits and eats at the same time. No bloody faffing!

( I appreciate that MIL probably loves the busy- ness and chatting over prep etc, so realise we all do things differently. She probably hates my way of organising things!)

This shouldn't be about the weird things in-laws do ( or weird things DIL/SIL does) families are all different. Accept it.

We were talking about it yesterday in office apparently it used to be a thing there and they’d sell tickets so you could get toast etc too.

Have the telly on, ALL the time

Is it rude to say it's a bit weird to watch them.

Also In laws declined coming to their grandchild 's birthday party as they weren't assigned a job to do.

See, echoes my point above. Everyone else’s habits seem weird if they are different to your own.

I have never expected (as a guest) or provided ( for my guests) - DENTAL FLOSS.

It has never crossed my mind.

Well, my late MiL used to ask DH & I who all the little boys in our house were. They were DSs 1-4. Each time we told her, she'd say, "Oh, they're lovely boys, to be sure, to be sure." We realised she had early onset dementia and she passed away while they were still young.

They keep every single large kitchen appliance in the garage and then carry it in as required. ' we only use the microwave occaionally' says mil everytime we visit.

Even the toaster is carried in to toast a single slice of bread, then the crumbs are emptied, the toaster wiped down and one of the ils will find some shoes (this is not an integral garage) and put the ugly appliance out of sight...