To hang my bl**dy MIL...

[Lunar270]

.....for re-hanging my washing on the line.

It was a nice(ish) day for hanging out the washing so there I am, pegging it all out. MIL pops round, sees me finishing the last of the washing and precedes to unpeg and hang it out again.

Now, a question for MN. I honestly don't spend much time thinking about it. However, I tend to peg garments using the strongest part of the garment. So for a tee shirt I'll peg the seam at the arm/shoulder as this also minimises peg marks. But nope, MIL turn the tee upside down and pegs the bottom seam, which results in the tee drying out of shape as it then droops (plus peg marks 🙄).

So I call her out on her ludicrous behaviour. First why the hell she's re-hanging my washing and also that she's doing it incorrectly (for me). I should bite my lip but no-one can ever do anything right in her eyes.

"Oh I've been a housewife for over 30 years so know what I'm doing". I could've hung her out with the washing too. AIBU?

Can you imagine a washing line standoff between my MIL and I? She's so stubborn we could've been there all day pegging and unpegging 😂. Although I guess it would've dried quicker with all the toing and froing 😂

Thanks to all for the hanging opinions though. You need to laugh or you'd cry about it.

Sadly if I bake a cake, it's too dry/firm/moist (insert opposite of how it should be). If I give my kids money we're spoiling them. If I don't, I'm not supporting enough. I could go on.

Tops from the bottom and bottoms from the top.
Team MIL all the way.

Is the line accessible when you're standing in the garden, and she's going out and helping herself, or ... ? In my house, you'd have to go into a specific room, open two sets of windows, and lean out to get access to put anything on the line or take it off. I'd be alarmed if a visitor tried to do this, and probably wonder if they'd gone a bit mad. I'd certainly stop them.

If she genuinely wants to help, why not ask what she can do rather than duplicating efforts?

If she's trying to make the point that you've "done it wrong" she's rude as fuck, especially as she's not going to be wearing any of the clothes.

There are many reasons why your MIL did this.
How can we possibly know why.
Maybe she thought you were doing it wrong and didnt want to embarress you so she did descreetly to help.
Maybe she wanted to show whos boss.
You what type of person she is.
But its just washing so unless you sure it was spiteful does it really matter?

I’m a mil and really couldn’t care any less about how my adult children hang their washing on their own washing lines.

"Oh I've been a housewife for over 30 years so know what I'm doing".

Tell her to save her expertise for her own laundry, & not to interfere with yours.

And don't hang her out to dry - Miss Marple next door is bound to notice & you'll have all sorts of bother to deal with. Get her back indoors, quietly strangle her with the line, then transfer her beneath the patio under cover of darkness. I've been a cold-blooded murderer for over 30 years, so know what I'm doing

I have neither rhyme nor reason to my hanging. No kings, no gods, only chaos! 😂

But, if someone were to attempt to interfere, I would just tell them to stop. No ‘calling out’ or ‘questioning’, just an unequivocal ‘stop doing that’. I think that would be most people’s reaction in this situation.

Anyway, I remain fascinated by the unending complexities of MN posters’ reactions to quite straightforward situations.

YABVVVU in hanging stuff the way you are! Bottoms from the top and tops from the bottom.

She was BVU to rehang stuff you'd already put out (but I would have been itching to to the same!). It's a bit like when Dh restacks the dishwasher when I've done it. Pisses me off but mostly because he's right and can get more stuff in

I hate the "I've been doing X for X number of years" defence. There are plenty of people who do daily tasks wrong for decades.

My Nan has been making tea for 70-odd years and yet she has never been able to stir it properly - instead of moving the spoon round and round or back and forth she bangs it up and down, so most of the sugar ends up still sitting in the bottom of the cup undissolved.

My mum has been washing dishes for 50 years and is getting worse with every passing year (as her eyesight deteriorates). She never rinses anything, and despite Fairy Liquid making a big thing about how the keep making their formula ever more concentrated, my mum uses the exact same amount as she did back in the 80s, meaning there is an absurd amount of bubbles, which cling to the glasses and plates along with all the dirt and grease and tomato sauce trapped in them. So when everything dries, not only is it coated in a visible (and tastable!!!) film of Fairy liquid, but it also has small dots of grease and grime on it all. She gets very angry (and I mean properly angry) if I point it out.

Sadly if I bake a cake, it's too dry/firm/moist (insert opposite of how it should be). If I give my kids money we're spoiling them. If I don't, I'm not supporting enough. I could go on.

No no no this needs punishment worse than murder OP.

Which way round does she hang her loo rolls?
Whichever it is ... go in & turn it the other way. Every visit. The slow drip of pass-agg satisfaction can be yours forever ...

This!

She is a busy body, but I think upside down may be for the best.

I once drank a huge spider that had fallen into a glass that was the right way up in my mum’s cupboard. I had to throw it up 🤮

I have very strong views about the correct hanging of washing, but I keep it to my own washing. If other people want to do things wrong, that is entirely their choice, their washing. I might be judging you very deeply inside my head, but I'm not redoing anyone else's washing and I almost definitely won't say anything. (I probably would comment if you don't pair up socks, to be fair.)

It’s passive aggressive control.
She’s ‘helping’ so she can’t be bad. They pick the small things so that if you tell anyone, you seem petty. It’s not petty though.

Though I was taught my DMum to peg from the bottom - and still do on whirligig - but I also have a hoist up line that really catches the wind and I've found out the hard way it will stretch items - plus it really has to be pegged on well.

MIL has rehung items - but it happened to have been DH who pegged it out so he dealt with it.

Yes it’s weird reductive p.a shit.

my nan used to do it to my mum- once she got my gramps over and had him dig a hole/pour concrete etc to move the rotary washing line when she had us while my mum was at work! Mum moved it back and used the leftover concrete to fill the hole 😂

DH’s ex also does this with their DC. He returns school uniform saying ‘I’ve cleaned/ironed it’ and she smiles sweetly and puts it straight in the machine in front of him. Plus sending the child off to our house on Saturday morning with a lunchbox for lunch ‘just in case’. We have 2 other kids ffs.

You're all wrong! Anyone who's a bit short and wide, like me, needs to peg T shirts sideways with one arm over the line. The only droop goes the way I want it then.

It's astounding to me that anyone could give enough fucks about another household's washing line to actually redo it, or even itch to put things the 'right' way around. We all do things our own way, don't we? Like, I've had raised eyebrows for over 30 years at my ILs' preference for keeping tinned foods at the bottom of their fridge (and their veg in a basket), but it's their kitchen.

Maybe she thought you were doing it wrong and didnt want to embarress you so she did descreetly to help.

Ridiculous! How on earth would leaving the OP's washing alone as she'd hung it out in her own garden possibly embarrass her? Embarrass her in front of whom? Also - there is no 'doing it wrong'. Nobody who is worried about embarrassing someone deliberately and unnecessarily points out their sipposed mistakes.

DH hangs out our washing very weirdly. We have a 4 arm whirligig and he hangs duvet covers across two arms.😳

Fucking monster. LTB!

Blimey, cross posted @ZeroFuchsGiven 😂

My late MIL used to do things like this, she thought there were two ways to do things - her way and the wrong way. Once she told me I was pouring Coke wrong.

It's funny you mention baking a cake. If I ever baked a cake she'd say it was too sweet. Once DH made the exact same cake I'd made about a week before, which she had declared too sweet and couldn't finish the slice, except he made it a different shape and sprinkled extra sugar on the top. Funnily enough she chomped her way through that one and her only comment was it was nice!

I don’t have a 4 arm whirligig, just a very long washing line but why is this had?

Maybe the duvet needs two arms?

How you hang your washing is up to you - it's your washing - your choice. I would find it exceptionally rude though for someone to rock up and start re-doing something I've been doing in my own home to suit how they want it. They're not living here - I am. If I ask someone's advice or ask for their help, that's a different matter, but to just start un-doing/re-doing the work you've just done without asking - just no. I wouldn't be able to stop myself going back and putting it back the way I did it in the first place just to make the point.

I occasionally have to re-hang my dds washing, do you know she actually hangs socks from the top and not even in pairs!!! she gets me back by hanging my knickers from each side of the waistband so everyone can see how large they are yes, we do laugh at each other.

This isn't the correct way to hang them?