Things that close family members do that aggravate you but for no good reason (lighthearted)

[badonkydonk]

Mine is my mum. I do love her dearly but the one thing that irritates me is the half inch of tea left in a cup. I know her reasoning - back in the day, when tea was made from tea leaves, if you finished the drink, you would get a mouthful of groggy tea leaf sediment.

However, its 2016 and (as a non tea drinker) I would go on oath to state my tea has no grubby leaves at the bottom (I use a bag). Why it annoys me, I have no idea......but finish your bloody drink!

In my defense, I've never raised he subject, just walked away with the cup inwardly seething.

Any other stories of mid annoyances?

[justilou]

My husband snores. His whole family is legendary. I am looking forward to the day when I go completely deaf in that ear and can get some bloody sleep!
Oh, and he sucks his fingers with enjoyment when he finishes every meal. Makes me feel quite stabby....

[PinkyofPie]

Another one from my dear poor DM. I thought of this thread when she rang today at 2pm to ask if me and DD wanted to go to a seaside town for the afternoon which is an hour's drive away. I said no thanks as we're off to the pictures at 6pm so don't wanna rush about. She says "oh...ok then. It's fine!" in a really huffy manner - honestly I do wonder how she raised 3 kids under 4 sometimes when she thinks I can just drop everything to piss about by the seaside!

[TuppencePenny]

Laughing out loud at the packing one. My mum is the same as in she needs an inordinate amount of time to pack but usually instead of dedicating a day she spaces it out over about a three week period prior to going away and will have the suitcases out with items folded and packed in there. As the holiday draws closer more items go into the case and all need to be double checked and then the day before is spent at home doing the last minute packing bits. It's incredible really.

[TuppencePenny]

Getting into this now...

My mum had an irrational aversion to being late for anything or risking being late for anything to the point where she builds in contingency time for every single journey no matter if they're "time sensitive" or not.

If we are going for a day out with my parents they will say we have to be "on the road" at 9am. At 8.50am my mum is pacing and shouting downstairs that we should be in the car and the day is going to be gone and wasted. If I then come downstairs at 8.55am and pour a glass of orange juice she will have a fit as she's "bleached the sink" or something random and she will desperately try to herd me into the car. We always leave on time but not before she has had a panic attack over us potentially not leaving on time. It's never for anything important just a day trip somewhere.

The worrying thing is I've started being ridiculously early for things like trains and flights now and I can see myself mirroring the behaviour slightly... Must stop it!

[TheRealKimmySchmidt63]

Can identify with so many of these posts it's frightening
My brother will put empty or near enough empty bottles/containers back in fridge cupboard.
Mum insists on us making the bed when staying at hotels???
Mum comments all the way through programmes/films - not on the plot - what people are wearing/ how much weight they've put on the decor of their homes etc
A good friend always responds to a text by calling you back - it's almost like you have to pick up the phone because I know the phone is still in your hand trap - I now text when I think she's sleeping

[Whitelisbon]

My dm. I can get myself and 5 kids organised to leave the house in less time than she can get just herself ready. I even gave dc5 a breastfeed the other day and was still ready before she was.
And, every time I leave the house, she asks "have you been for a wee?" No, mother, because I'm going to the shop over the road, will be out of the house for less than a minute, and I'm a big girl now, and haven't peed myself in a number of years.

[chunkymum1]

Clearly I am perfect and never do anything that could irritate my family but my lot all have their annoying ways:

DH starts many conversations with 'Oh, I didn't tell you did I?' He then waits for a response to this before telling me whatever it was that he thinks he didn't tell me before. Why? And what answer can I possibly give without knowing what he is about to say?

MIL provides a longer than real time account of any mundane event that she wants to tell me. So for example telling me that she bumped in to a friend in town and went for a cup of tea starts with an explanation of why she was in town, what route she took, where she'd been before she met said friend, what she'd bought, what she thought when she saw the friend, what they each said, what she had to drink, the thought process through which she decided not to have cake/to have cake etc etc. DH has started to do this too so maybe it's genetic!

DM and DF have very specific ways of doing all very standard tasks (they did not have these ways when they were younger) and will get quite huffy if it's done wrong. This means that however tired/unwell they are they will not let me do anything to help when I visit them without standing over me and basically re-doing it their way. For example last time I visited I got up before them and made them a cup of tea in bed (DF usually does this but he was tired). Apparently I used the wrong cup for DM (I gave her the same cup she had the previous afternoon but she now likes a china cup in the morning whereas ordinary ceramic is fine for an afternoon) so DF got up anyway to do it properly. I made matters worse by starting to unload the dishwasher by picking out items for each cupboard and putting them away. DF dashed in to tell me I must put everything on the kitchen table, then close the dishwasher and only then put things away. No idea what difference this can have made.

DM also loves to label things with hand written stickers (nothing fancy or pretty, just the standard large white office type labels). So the glass jar with rice in is helpfully labelled 'rice'- similarly with spaghetti, pasta, tea bags. Who is the label for? Then items that could easily be mixed up (different types of flour/standard coffee and decaf etc are not labelled.

[Ningnang2000]

My mil tells me IN DETAIL about her bowel movements. I kid you not. Everytime I ask how she is. I'm just being polite I don't need to know about the runs. She's even started telling me about the toilet troubles of her pal who never quite made it in time to the toilet and had to ask the restaurant for a mop.

FIL always asks if i'm getting overtime even though I have never in my 15 years of working every had the chance of overtime.
He also has an annoying habit of sitting around the house with no top on. He'll even Skype friends that way.

[FeliciaJollygoodfellow]

DH just loves to tell me all about this thing he saw on Facebook. He hasn't quite grasped that I'm his friend on Facebook so anything he likes, I know about!

He also has a thing about wearing a coat. It's August, but if there's a chance of rain, he and the kids will have their coats on. Not the waterproofs they own, proper coats. It irrationally annoys me.

My mum is the same with 'wasting the day', like if I'm not up, dressed and ready to go it's a total waste. Even if our plans are a couple of hours in soft play or going swimming. She's also not spontaneous at all, if it wasn't planned yesterday then she probably won't do it.

Love em really

[LauderSyme]

This thread has made me laugh
I really love my grandmother, she's such a lovely kind woman but ooh sometimes I have to grit my teeth!
She's been making me cups of tea for nearly 30 years and still makes it Wrong. Every. Time.
At every meal she urges me to help myself to food/condiments on the table when I am literally reaching out to do so, and asks me if it's nice when the first forkful is still en route to my mouth.
She tells me in minute detail about books she's read, and the ins and outs of the lives of her friends whom I only vaguely know, or even the lives of her friend's relatives whom I don't know at all. I don't care!
She always asks "who's that?" non-rhetorically, when the doorbell rings. I don't know!
Her house and garden are kept as tightly secure as bloody Fort Knox but she still asks "where's the cat?" every 10 minutes. The cat is nervous and ancient so hardly a candidate for a daring escape. I used to point this out but now I just go and locate it and report back.
If I mention I need to make a journey she will, without fail, muse at length on the potential for delay and cancellation.
If I mention I need to buy a perfectly commonplace item she will talk as if it could well prove an impossible find, despite us living near London in 2016 rather than in Soviet-era Russia.
I know I sound mean but I do adore her and pretty much manage to bite my tongue. I'm sure I annoy her too but she's too nice to say anything!

[Muddledupme]

My son makes himself a cup of tea and always manages to spill sugar all over the worktoP which drives me crazy, but instead of wiping it up with the dishcloth he cups his palm and sweeps it onto the floor where it crunches all day. Honestly he's lucky he's alive.

[TheOddity]

My DM sends me at least one DM link a day with a 'cryptic' message for my life. Usually something nice that I am already doing, but often something on her agenda for me. I.e. 'reading 100 books to your toddler every day linked to reduction in finger cancer'. I don't click as I hate the DM.

DF fast forwards through talking bits of quiz shows to the questions, then pauses it ages on the question until he is 100℅ sure of the answer. It absolutely sucks the joy out of TV.

[chunkymum1]

My MIL is quite small, not unusually so, but the rest of the family are quite big she stands out. The older she gets the more of a big deal she makes of this. Currently she does these things:

• Makes one of the DC reach things for her (even if she could reach them herself) so she can comment on how amazing it is that her grandchildren are so much taller than her (the amazement surely must have worn off by now).
  
• Insists that anything she has to eat or drink is 'little' as she can't manage more as she is only small. She has a child size mug at ours for when she wants a cup of tea and will cut an already small piece of cake in half.
  
• Makes a fuss about someone sharing with her if she wants a snack when we are out. Why not just order what you want and leave a bit!
  
• Buys those very small cans of drink (like they serve on planes). If she is out and wants to buy a drink to carry around she will go in to every shop looking for these (even if I have told her that I don't think she'll find them).
  
• Only likes to eat out in places where there is an option of having a small portion. If we go somewhere that does not offer small portions she will ask to order from the children's menu.
  
• Makes a huge fuss about where she sits at school plays, sports days etc. She is not subtle about her thoughts on people who have the audacity to sit in the seats in front of her.
  

We have a good relationship but I do sometimes want to tell her that yes, everyone has noticed that she is tiny and can't eat or drink much.

[The80sweregreat]

Morris, the car hasnt been cleaned since the Blair administration! Classic line! Reminds me of an old 80s song ( which i would need to google to remember name ' ive been loving you since the miners strike' ! Always made me smile.
My dh slurps tea , its a bad thing.
My dad, just most things he says really! ( but at 94 he can get away with some of it)

[cupofrooibos]

My lovely, largely rational stepfather records football matches on Sky+ and watches them at 2x speed 'so it takes half as long'

[KayTee87]

Every time I ask my husband if the back door is locked he asks 'is YOUR back door locked??'

[pizzaeatingmonkey]

The80s song was called 'hippy chick'.

[ItWentInMyEye]

Loving these
My DM makes -admittedly appreciative- noises whilst eating but it borders on pornographic some of the moans she makes I try and block her out. DP after eating a bag of crisps will suck each finger in turn and make this sucking/lip smacking sound when he gets to the tip of the finger. It makes me want to vomit and I've smacked his hand out of his mouth many many times. Rank.

[Olddear]

No!!! I can't bear seeing people use their fork like a spoon!

[Lalalalalaa]

KayTee mine does that too!

[DIYTopTits]

How do people eat peas without using their fork like a spoon (if it's a meal that needs a knife and fork, rather than a spoon and fork)? I never realised I was doing it wrong.