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?

Hang t shirts on hangers to dry. Solves the problem. If fact I dry as much as I can on hangers. (your way is also my way when I run out of hangers btw.)

30 years of being a housewife and she still gets it wrong...

I fold my t shirts over the line at the underarms. Then peg there.

Takes longer to fry, but no visible peg marks, or line marks. And stops the t shirt stretching. It’s a knitted item so can stretch wherever it wants.

This holds it secure.

It's good that you can laugh but frankly, I think this is so insanely rude I can't even begin to imagine how you didn't hang her. I just can't get my head around it.

Same 🤣. I started feeling agitated just reading your description about how you hung your t shirt 🙈. YABU

I've been a housewife (as well as working outside the home) and I couldn't care less how people hang their washing. Seems really odd to me, I wouldn't even notice. She mustn't have enough to think about.

Well done on not hanging her, not worth you getting into trouble.

My ex’s colleague did this to me once. They’d popped in for lunch as they were working nearby and the dickhead started rearranging my washing and giving me a lecture on how I was doing it wrong.
I basically told him to piss off and ex was really shitty with me afterwards- thought I should have meekly welcomed the random man’s words of wisdom. It was almost 15 years ago and I still sometimes remember and think WTF.
YANBU!

Meant to say I've been a housewife for over 50 years.

No right or wrong way, do it how you like.

This in spades.
I bet it isn't the only thing she "corrects" you on, is it?

^
This with bells on!

For all the posters that are entering into the debate about the right way and the wrong way to hang washing (and whether MIL was doing it the right way or not), it's totally not the point.

It doesn't matter how theOp was hanging washing; it's her washing, her house, her rules.

If she'd asked for help or guidance then of course MIL would be right to do what she did, but Op didn't.

This is passive aggressive, controlling and insulting (and I predict just the start of the OP's problems if she doesn't deal with it).

Isn't it weird what people fixate on.

I agree, I mean who made the rules about hanging washing out!

@GrumpyPanda

Oh yes definitely. MIL is a nightmare. Can't do right for doing wrong and faffs about everything.

But re-hanging washing is a new one.

I used to hang my shorts from the bottom, but stopped because I notice they started to get misshaped, sort of became long at the sides and shorter at the front, so I started hanging by the collar/right at top of seams. Seems to be working better

T-shirts, not shorts!

correct

My late MIL was an angel, and we shared a house happily. My mother, however, once came round and rearranged my kitchen. She even moved my fridge and was very angry with me when I ungratefully told her to move it back.

If it wasn't washing in the OP's case, it would be something else.(BTW, Harold Shipman was a doctor for probably about 30 years, does that mean he treated all his patients the right way?) Also, had the washing been the other way up, that would have been wrong too. I doubt the MIL cared about the washing, she just wanted a chance to correct the OP.

I peg the bottom of a tee BUT it's not the point, I've had my MIL do this type of thing a few times and I always hated it even though she's lovely and we get on great. It's interfering and saying her way is better, and making you feel like a child.

That's the right way - stops dust getting into them...

I hang mine on hangars problem solved.

Do you live at Heathrow?

I knew this wasn't just about laundry. Solidarity, OP. My MIL is like this. She never stops with the low level criticism and corrections. Individually, they sound like petty things that a grown woman should be able to brush off (I'm pretty sure she has corrected me over laundry at some point too) but it's the absolutely relentless nature of it that grinds me down. She also does the "I'm a housewife" thing, which I think her trying to justify herself because she hasn't really worked outside the home or cultivated her own friendships despite being degree educated. I'm a working mum and have always earned my own money. She is also pathologically unable to treat DH as anything other than a naughty and incompetent child. So much so that it is now starting to cause quite serious problems in my marriage.
My guess is that those posters on this thread who are focusing on the rights and wrongs of hanging laundry have not experienced the sheer, mind-numbing slog of having an in-law who constantly tries to undermine and control.
DH and I have tried to assert boundaries with her but each and every time she pushes against them. It is like putting up sandbags up in defence of a rapidly encroaching flood.

Exactly this. What a rude woman. She can peg her washing however she likes, but your washing is hung now you want it! I don’t think I’d have been able to bite my tongue and this would have ended in a row about her interfering!

In general, that's ok, but I'm a non-ironer, so don't want bloody peg marks to iron out. I peg everything where any mark left won't show. I also turn things inside out (my washing line is in full sun and I don't want the colours to fade).

I always hang things from the strongest part/seam, but I was told off by my DIL (who lives with us) so when I hang her washing up I do it upside down, I'd rather keep the peace!