to ask you to tell me if they ever eat the fecking cake?

[missingmumxox]

That's it, I need to know!

Why for the love of Job????

Why traumatised? Have you read it yet?

I just want to sit here too. This is the thread equivalent of a darkened room.

Not eaten. And there'll be no update till much later as OP has to go to work today :(

OP got the cake out, put it on the kitchen table, MIL screamed 'NOT YET!!!!' And OP slammed the bitches face right into it. That's what happened.

made me really LOL.

I don't think that poor cake will ever get eaten. It was a birthday cake and it's no longer the MILs birthday so it may just be sat there for days.
I'm wondering if the op is a really rubbish baker and that's why nobody wants the cake. Maybe the whole surprise meal was a desperate attempt to get out of eating the cake.

The clue to understanding all this in the OPs update on the old thread, when she called her MIL 'Mami'. The PIL and BIL and probably the OPs OH are all French. This explains

Constantly napping menfolk especially in the late afternoon
Brioche and Nutella scoffing by grown men at gouter (snack) time
Well-trained children that don't help themselves to cake (since French children don't throw food;))
Much angst about who in the family has the authority to do what and make decisions regarding what is eaten and when
Going out late for dinner with children

It's a classic French / Anglo cultural clash. That's my theory anyway !

I think you're right, justwondering. I was intrigued by the use of the word 'Mami' too. And the OP mentioned the heat. Whilst it's nice here in the UK, it's certainly not scorching. I get the impression she lives 'abroad'. So there may well be cultural differences and matriarchal dynamics coming into play here.

Poor cake

Poor cake indeed! IMHO proper birthday cakes are under appreciated here: the standard French birthday cake is a slab of chocolate sponge with a candle stuck in the top!

And the siesta loving men... I know a lot of Anglo/ French families, and at family get-togethers, the French dads will - without exception- slope off to a quiet corner for a nap around 3pm while the U.S./UK dads soldier on. Naturellement, the women look after the kids all afternoon. Bizarre.

Can you believe the first thing I done when I opened my eyes this morning was to check on the cake......? I really, really need to get a life

RoboticSealpup, yes, the kids gave her their presents at the restaurant we ended up at for dinner.
The cake was mostly eaten this morning by MIL and FIL who said they enjoyed it very much, as did BIL for whom a piece was saved and then eaten when he woke up in the afternoon.
I went to work this morning to take my ailing Chromebook to the ICT technician who has unfortunately not been able to fix it so I am on the verge of chucking the stupid heap of metal into a ravine (the Chromebook, not the technician). Beach on Thursday! Hurrah!!

justwondering You're almost right! I am French! But my in-laws are Spanish.

In summer we all have siesta time after lunch as it is too hot to do anything and we tend to wake early and stay up late to make the most of the relatively cool night and dawn times. Siesta isn't necessarily sleeping, more like chilling.

BIL is addicted to all things chocolately, hence the Nutella. He sleeps all of the time because he's a student. He was eating a "pan de leche" but I translated that roughly to brioche.

Thanks for saying my children are well behaved! I would hope so, but it's impossible to judge your own kids' conduct, really, isn't it?

Bizarrely, we went out very early for dinner (7.30pm). But we got home very late for the children as we ended up travelling so far. A 1.30am bedtime is not normal for our kids!