To ask do you enjoy spending time with your inlaws

[ILikePandas15]

Almost Christmas so it's likely most of you have to spend some time with your inlaws. Do you enjoy this? I hate spending time with my inlaws, mostly my Mil and it actually ruins Christmas a bit for me especially since we are guilted into staying a few nights.
Also how often do you see your inlaws during the year and how much time do you spend with them at Christmas?

SIL1 - No.. loves to disagree just to be different and is painfully patronising about hosting/what we lay/gifts she receives on even though she has never hosted and likely never will.

SIL2 & 3 - yep really enjoy their company along with SIL2 partner they are polite, grateful and good fun to be around.

PIL - yes, for a short time then they our stay welcome and begin the 'we never bothered with X Y or Z in our day at Christmas time' while consuming the items which they seem to be a total waste of money 🙄😁

But on the whole not too painful an experience as it is for some!

Mine are nice but very annoying. They get a bit greedy when here as I have nice food and they are very frugal which winds me up a bit.
Eg fil will have 5 different types of cereal over two sittings which massively pisses me.off as it's just greedy.
Last weekend we got Chinese and they tucked.into DDS dish of.cjickrm balls which is all they will eat from.the chinese as well.as.their own dishes.
I was literally doing vodka shots.om the utility room to cope

NO!!!

No. It's painfully awkward and miserable. This isn't just me who feels like this, my husband does too and they're his parents.

I don't mind seeing them but not on Christmas Day. MIL and BIL are okay but SIL always ruins Christmas by being in a foul mood. Most of the time she's okay but she's been like this every Christmas so I refuse to see her.
Rest of the year we see MIL once or twice a week and the rest as and when as we're all busy.

I’d love to turn the clock back and have one more Xmas with my in-laws. Before she got Alzheimer’s my mil was good fun and loved Xmas.
I’m lucky though because I still have my own parents.

I see my in-laws at least once a week...husband and his dad have a business, so see him sometimes more.
I get on okay with them I guess, we've had issues with MIL forcing opinion on me, but I politely disagree and we move on. We get on really well until the pushing opinions...she acts like a spoilt child if she doesn't get her way, but husbands tells her to stop behaving like a child, she will sulk and then back to normal
We are seeing them Xmas eve, along with all of the MIL family, we see them for 2-3 hours Xmas day, and then we normally have a day in the week after Xmas over with MIL family again.
I don't mind, but do get annoyed when FIL this week implied we don't do enough with his family and more with mine....I think this is quite a lot to see his family!! And we never decline when invited to family things as MIL would kick off, and it's easier to just go!

We get on
I didn't really have much to do with them before dd came along. She loves spending time with them and they adore her. We are spending Christmas with them this year.
Mil is a bit of a snob, I always knew she thought DH could do better.
I probably see more of them than DH does.

I see my MIL all the time. I love her very much, she's fab. Infact, I love the whole family which is great as I'm quite a distance from my own parents.

No. So I don’t.

No. Always feels a bit strained.
Mil has pitted herself in some kind of battle against me for my dp's and my DC's affection so it's all a bit passive-agressive and laced with competition.

I've no family to see at Christmas, so we see the in laws. They're welcoming and kind, but despite being very well off everything is done on the cheap. Their contribution to our Xmas lunch last year was two £1 cheesecakes from Morrisons for six adults and four teenage boys. They don't drink either, or do 'silliness', so it's all rather stilted.
Years of them favouring SIL and her DC sticks in my throats too. But we'll put a smile on and come away as soon as we can.

No I did not. For the last 25 years they have expected to be with us on Christmas day and every Sunday. We have never had a Christmas alone as a family, my husband, our son and me. Every weekend was a chore too. MIL widowed 18 months ago, refuses to mix with others, won't go to any activities we have suggested and complains she is lonely.

Not particularly. They would tell us we had put on weight as soon as we walked in the door. Then there would be a few nasty comments at the children, like how their hair needs cutting or that they were not wearing nice clothes. Then they'd spend an hour telling us how marvellous their other Son was. As such, we didnt go to visit them that often.

Error no. PIL are just awful, tend to drink to much, throw up and be obnoxious so we keep a low profile and keep visits at a minimum.
Makes me quite sad sometimes but I cannot keep ending up in the firing line because of them

I won;t be seeing mine if I can help it...They are mean,weak and greedy and utterly ineffective. For example my son in law told them last week that he and my stepdaughter were coming to visit us to collect all the christmas presents from us for all of them as we were both working flat out and couldnt come down to bring them ourselves. I work monday to friday and my husband works 4 on 2 off so weekends he is not often here.They live 160 miles away from us so I was super organised and got everyones christmas presents ready,wrapped and bagged up to go so they would have them all well in time for christmas. Anyway my son in law said to FIL is there anything you want me to take up for you as we are dropping our gifts off and FIL said no..these gifts will stop here til they come....Well excuse me but for what they buy its not worth having anyway and I willl notbe held to ransom by them anyway so those gifts will stay there til hell freezes over for all I care!!! They arent punishing us although they think they are ..but to do that to their own granddaughter just tells you what kind of people they are....so no I dont like my grabby inlaws one bit and I dont want to see them at all if I can help it!!!!!!! But I do hope they enjoy their gifts that were thoughtfully bought for them and delivered well on time because I am better than them!!!

I love PIL - very hospitable and fun people. I also really like the aunts, uncles and cousins. Can’t stand SIL and BIL though (but neither can DH so we see as little of them as poss!)

Love my MIL, kindest most generous woman ever. FIL is more reserved and quiet and despite DH and I being together over 17 years I’m not sure we’ve ever had an in-depth conversation. SIL 1, great fun, an absolute riot, our kids are very very close. We’ve holidayed together etc. SIL 2. Well. Let’s just say she isn’t SIL 1, we won’t be going on holiday together and leave it at that 😂

No and I too dread it.
Me and dh used to go to in laws in the morning for breakfast and then go home and then go back to in laws in the evening for a drink but this year I can’t be bothered and just going to pop around for an hour in the evening.

Yes I do actually. I don't like to see anyone too often because I'm an introvert, so sometimes visiting the in-laws can feel a bit overwhelming, but when I do see them I enjoy it. My MIL is lovely now that I've got to know her a bit better (haha, I've been with her son for 11 years), my husband's sisters are roughly my age so we get on, and my FIL and her wife are a good laugh. I've not actually seen any of them properly for a while, so I'm quite looking forward to seeing them all at Christmas.

My own family don't live in the UK so the in-laws are all I have here.

@Ledkr now that's a blast from the past, I used to be in awe at your greedy PIL threads. Please treat us to a festive version this year!

Yes. I love them.

Not specially. But I have always loved seeing my children being loved and loving as part of a family so I put up with it!

No, I hate it

Yes, I love my pils and my sil and her family. They have me crying with laughter every time I see them (fil's lady gaga impersonation is something to behold!) And my DH's nan is one of my favourite human beings I have ever know.