Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

Husband called my family The Brady Bunch

119 replies

CharlieSon · 28/11/2019 10:24

Overheard DH on phone to MIL about Christmas Day. His parents were asked to join us for dinner but declined. Heard him say “thanks for leaving me to deal with the bloody Brady Bunch”. His tone suggested it was an insult but I’ve never seen it so don’t know what to make of it. AIBU to feel annoyed?

OP posts:

donquixotedelamancha · 28/11/2019 11:35

it is still comes down to tone - is quite different depending on whether said with resignation or venom.

Or irony and affection.

BarbaraofSeville · 28/11/2019 11:36

Definitely sounds like an insult, like he doesn't want to spend time with his own family and hoped the presence of his DPs would 'dilute' the impact, or as the OP will not be stressing about not falling out with her MIL so her attentions might be directed towards including him in family life/expecting him to pull his weight?

PickwickThePlockingDodo · 28/11/2019 11:36

Ahhh I used to love The Brady Bunch especially the intro bit where they all looked up, down and across at each other from their boxes

CareOfPunts · 28/11/2019 11:40

He wasn’t speaking to you. Is he not allowed to have a private conversation? Look how often on here people slag off the in-laws

Do I say things about my in-laws I wouldn’t want my husband to hear? Yes. Do I suspect he says things about my family he wouldn’t want me to hear? Yes. It’s not like he was slagging them off to your face - you overheard him, it wasn’t meant for your ears.

Abouttoblow · 28/11/2019 11:40

I don't think the Brady Bunch reference is even relevant. The fact that he said "thanks for leaving me with..." would piss me off.

ScrimshawTheSecond · 28/11/2019 11:44

Anytime I’ve heard Brady Bunch used as an insult it’s usually from someone who’s not got a great family dynamic it think they’re too cool to be sentimental...

Yep. An ex used to use these kind of cutting remarks to imply my (lovely, loving, far from perfect) family were somehow ... I don't know, lesser than his (extremely fucked up) family.

It's not the worst insult, OP. I think rather than insulting you, he's getting at his family in a passive aggressive sort of a way. Basically guilting his mother for not being as nice as your family.

Aridane · 28/11/2019 11:44

Unfortunately, the annoying ellipses made me think "the B..... bunch " was actually going to be a hell of a lot worse than the bloody Brady bunch

(which actually Imthink is rather funny)

cstaff · 28/11/2019 11:47

It just sounds like he would have liked a bit of back up from his own family and that is quite normal I would have thought. Don't take it so harshly OP - you are only going to cause problems that probably don't exist.

If you are talking to your mum or a friend, are you saying that you never have an innocent rant about your DH or his family because that is exactly what that sounds like. I think you are taking it all out of context.

Drum2018 · 28/11/2019 11:47

He obviously has an issue with your family if he's annoyed that he's being left with the bloody Brady Bunch. The Brady Bunch was a blended American family - she had 3 girls and he had 3 boys when they married. Wouldn't have been a perfect family mix where everyone got on so if he's alluding to your family being sickly sweet and nice then he should have chosen The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie . Anyway he has a bee in his bonnet about being left on his own with you all without his mammy and daddy to keep him sane

FizzyGreenWater · 28/11/2019 11:47

Turn it round on him.

'The 'bloody Brady Bunch'? Oh well done, way to make your mum feel as if your side must be some totally miserable Addams family or something! Nobody likes the sound of a Christmas grinch remember, especially if it leaves you wondering what you did to bring up such a grumpy son! Lol though, Brady bunch, I like it'

Now THAT will bring him up short

Cultoffortnite · 28/11/2019 11:51

My American DW jokingly/not-jokingly referred to my family as being like the Brady Bunch and I decide to take it as a compliment! We all get all well, and love each other enough to let little the petty annoyances slide, so there's never drama.
Her family are lovely to me for the most part but given to drama, parents hate each other but stayed together and are now stuck, and there's masses of sibling rivalry.
I'll take my gorgeous want to spend time together family over that any day...

GBroGal · 28/11/2019 11:51

Maybe he was just extending the alliteration - BBB. If you want insult, try my exH's - he a;ways referred to my side of the family as "the Dysfunctional D...'s". Ironic, when I think that the reason we split was his Drinking.

Cultoffortnite · 28/11/2019 11:59

I'd let it slide, hardly anyone prefers someone else's family over their own, and if that's the worse he can say about them you're probably okay...

BrendasUmbrella · 28/11/2019 12:01

Surely your husband is allowed an opinion? He doesn't have to like your family.

He was bitching about his wife's family behind her back. It's very different to saying it to her face. And presumably not an opinion he has expressed to her before, hence her surprise.

wormshock · 28/11/2019 12:02

My husband calls my family The Addams Family! Now that's an insult!

AuntieFox · 28/11/2019 12:02

Could be worse .. could have said The Manson Family

NotTonightJosepheen · 28/11/2019 12:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JorisBonson · 28/11/2019 12:06

DP calls my family The Clampetts. It makes me laugh (funny cos it's true).

maras2 · 28/11/2019 12:06

No one makes TV family comparisons complimentarily. especially prefaced by 'bloody'.
Not a LTB offence though but pull him up and ask what he meant by it.

AtrociousCircumstance · 28/11/2019 12:08

It was a mean thing to say.

Whatever he meant (and I kind of think he may have meant ‘they’re all so close and happy and wonderful and it’s sickening and I feel like an outsider’) he said “thanks for leaving me with” - that’s very negative and it was mean.

beachysandy81 · 28/11/2019 12:11

Just ignore it. I love my in laws but still find them annoying at times! I think bringing it up again is just going to stir up trouble, he was having a private conversation and was probably just joking! As long as he is nice to them when he sees them there is no real issue here.

OneDay10 · 28/11/2019 12:12

yanbu, to me he was saying that they are overbearing and just too much.

MarianaMoatedGrange · 28/11/2019 12:14

Play the theme tune and sing along to it - watch his face

LagunaBubbles · 28/11/2019 12:17

Why haven't you asked him what he meant?

Notodontidae · 28/11/2019 12:33

Well obviously he wasn't too worried about you being able to listen to his private phone call. First of all it's no big deal, he married you not your family. Second, what if it was the IL, that suggested they were not coming because it was like meeting the Brady Bunch. Now that puts a different light on the subject, so DH then says, "thanks for leaving me with the Brady Bunch" (Tongue in cheek) but not DHs view of your family. Your DH sounds great, get him something nice for Xmas

Flip

1 2 3 4 5