I've just spent a few days at new man's parents' house

[Curlybook]

They've been lovely, nothing too much trouble and the house is beautiful, spotless, but soo uncomfortable.

Nothing is there to be nice to use. The beds are nice looking wooden frames with saggy mattresses, the sofa has wooden arms and is impossible to sit on unless you sit up straight, even garden furniture has no cushions and the shower doesn't have a handheld bit so is awkward to use.

I've come home to my slightly shabby and untidy house glad to be able to curl up on the sofa.

Do you think they find it uncomfortable too?

People coming on here to berate the op for letting off steam and calling her rude are off their heads and don't understand the concept of an anonymous chat forum.

People who put soap or shower gel up their foof and on their flaps are equally off their heads

We've done that growing up too. Also if any YPs left we had them for pudding with golden syrup!!

@RanyaJerodung dd2's cloakroom has a black toilet and sink and doesn't have a window. I generally use one of her other bathrooms when I need to go!

Toilets without windows! Not great!

Yes, I’ve seen them eaten with heated jam too.

I don’t think this thread is bitchy. I feel sure that staying in my house would be considered uncomfortable by many people— it’s old, big, but only part-renovated so it’s draughty, and the layout is odd, we have a cement-floored temporary kitchen, from which you have to carry food quite a long way to the table, and our tv is considered eccentrically small.

I'm from Lancashire and its always been served as a meal accompaniment every time I've had it, rather than a first course on its own.
I love them but they don't have much taste to them so I would always use them as a little food boat to fill up and weigh down with all the other stuff on my plate. So it seemed strange having it served to me that way. I wanted to save it until the main but didn't want to offend ex's Mum. 😂

To answer the question, I doubt that they do.

I am glad to read that they are lovely and seem to have welcomed you.

PIL never redecorated anything in their lives. They lived in the same house for over sixty years and everything, kitchens, bathrooms, furniture etc was unchanged. Clearing it was a doddle, no sorting, five skips and all done.

Oh I hate those showers where you can't hold the shower head. It's very difficult to do a handstand in the shower to make sure your bits are properly rinsed 😂

Went to stay with my lovely brother and his lovely partner in their new place.
I massively struggled with the lighting. They either had high watt ceiling lights on all night or turned on their one lamp which was an exposed 100 watt bulb on a flexible arm which they pointed at the room so you felt dazzled if you faced it and there were great looming shadows everywhere and I literally couldn’t see their expressions while we were chatting.
Also had another lovely friend who hosted a New Year party and kept all ceiling lights on all the time so we were in our glamour make up under harsh bright office type lighting. All night!
Sometimes you just want to interfere! ‘You can buy a table lamp for £9.99 you know’.

This is so right. Every doctor/gynae nurse tells you to keep soap/gel/even specialist "feminine" wash well away from the area.

Incidentally, I grew up in a time when the "handheld" was a rubber hose connected to the bath taps (for hair washing) - and that was modern. Showers, where they existed, were overhead only. And yes, we washed private parts daily, usually at the sink with a clean flannel which was then put in the wash.

We had relatives in Sheffield we visited that did this, The pudding was called seasoned pudding and from what I can tell had onions and stuffing in it 🤦 slathered in gravy, it was to fill you up before your dinner so you didn't need as much meat lol 🤣

I think this was its entire purpose back in the day.

I come from a low-income working class family and while we never went without, there were certain customs. My parents were when I went to university in the early 70s and the fully-catered hall of residence did not have a plate of buttered bread on the table at dinner. Or tea as they would have called it.

This thread is hilarious! Love the frosted glass loo 😆😆

However, it’s incredibly rude to accept hospitality and then groan about it not being up to snuff! I host a lot and it’s hard work!

I could be wrong but I tend to find that those who complain the most, don’t tend to host a lot themselves. The ones who do host are usually really grateful because they know the effort that goes in to it.

Basically, if your accommodation is clean and tidy, you have been fed, and you have laundered bed linen, then you should be thankful you haven’t had to shell out for a hotel, which is always an option if you are uncomfortable!

This comment is not directed at you specifically op btw. But there’s a reason that a ton of research and money goes in to designing even something as basic as a bog standard Premier Inn hotel room, because they are prioritising the guest experience, whereas in ordinary family homes, the main resources usually get spent on the incumbents. And family homes evolve haphazardly.

And people have different lifestyles, Friends of ours converted their house so that the main room was a big kitchen diner and they didn’t really have anywhere very comfortable to sit on the sofa at night and watch tv bc they are very active and don’t do that! It took a bit of getting used to!

If your new man’s parents are in their seventies op, then their own parents would have been brought up in the war. So they could have inherited those austere habits. Also, if everything is beautifully clean but a bit old-fashioned, maybe they are on a tight budget? Are they living off their pensions? Years ago, there wasn’t the same choice and range of nice furniture at reasonable prices that there is now. Although it’s all gone up again recently!

I've just returned from staying with very hospitable friends, where my hostess remarked in passing that she had slept in the new guest bed, to test it for comfort.
(She wasn't making a big deal about it but when I returned home, I made a point of doing the same. Thankfully, the guest beds passed muster)

Yes, we always had a round of buttered white bread with tea- generally made chips butties with it or soaked up any gravy.

I was just about to say that as a child,my dear late mum,made the most incredible Yorkshire pudding and there was a slice after the meal with golden syrup.i can't make them. Folk saying about uncomfortable sofas with wooden arms, have you seen the price of second hand ercol sofas, they aren't comfortable
There's a came 2 seater ercol on eBay,sort of thing you would put in a conservatory and it's nigh on £500!

Love it. 😊

My ex in-laws gave me cleaning stuff when heavily pregnant to clean the shower after use. A wipe down fine but I was ill (eclampsia) and heavily pregnant and they gave me all these products to clean: basin, shower, bath, mirror, mop the floor etc after one bloody shower. Honestly I could have cried. Note they are my ex in-laws.

Omg I had forgotten but this thread has reminded me - with the ex in-laws we had to sit on chairs with the plastic still on them. There were 5 places set for dinner - one was for their dog - I’m a dog lover but this one was evil. Ironically it was called Harry and he sat at the table too and they fed it human food off the table 😂🤣😱weirdos. Our dog sat on the floor (we had been invited to bring it) looking up with confusion at Harry (the evil dog that bit him any chance he got) sitting with a knife and fork (which my in-laws used to cut his meat up for him) - I swear this is genuine story and then he nibbled it. With his ears in the gravy. Oh dear lord. The dog they carried on walks as he was tired. The dog they went out and purchased one afternoon after they had never ever owned dogs in their life and they went out and came back with this dog that had bulging eyes, no descended testicles, dry eye condition and they even had a specialist bowl made for him via the local potter as Harry needed a special bowl for water as he was King Charles Spaniel and thus needed a special bowl to keep his ears dry from his water bowl. 😂 The dog wasn’t a nice dog and bit them and tried to bite us. Oh dear god.

My ex in laws were odd. They had no central heating and you almost wet yourself before you went to the loo because the only heat was in the lounge and the bathroom was as cold as being outside. They decided to get a garage built in preference to heating as apparently it added value to the house. Neither of them had ever driven and no one owned a car. They were not planning on selling so who cares how much the value has gone up. The 3 piece suite had plastic covers on it . This was 40 years ago and one of them still lives in it ( although at least there is heating now)