Including my young sister in law.
In laws have all the same furniture they've had for 40 years. Fair enough. Their house and their choice.
Some sofas have holes in them and their home could do with redecorating. However, it's all good. As long as they're happy.
When it comes to our stuff though... we moved from a flat to a house a couple of years ago.
Some of the stuff we had in our flat, hasn't made it. We had a cheap ikea table and chairs and we upgraded it to a pricey table and chair set, that should last us longer.
Anyhow. Every time we've replaced something, they always act really shocked. 'Omg what have you done with your old table ? ' ' can't you find another place for it ? '. They do the same with clothes for our kids - where are Bella's shoes from when she was a baby ? ' where is that pillow you had 5 years ago ? ' and so on.
We aren't frivolous by any means. I don't think it's unusual to upgrade 15 year old student furniture, once you move to a house. We've done it bit by bit. I haven't changed our bed, as I bought that later and it's still good.
I feel like they keep tabs on what we have and what we do. Same with any outside help we get - like a cleaner or gardener etc. they make us feel like we are terrible for getting help in and brag about how they did it all themselves. It's really frustrating. All the house stuff rests on me pretty much aa husband is never there and they clearly think I'm a rubbish mum and houswife ( I also work full time ). But they just never have a kind word to say about anything we do. Only criticisms and how they were so perfect and saved so much money all the time.
I've got neighbours who are of a similar age and they also regularly replace broken sofas etc. so it can't be an age thing. It's just frustrating to feel judged ALL the time. To always hear how life was harder for them ( it actually wasn't always ) and to always have to recognise their hardships, while any of ours are always swept away and dismissed.