Omg such anality from pil. Come and share your anal behaviour stories (lighthearted)

[ledkr]

We are with pil at present and they are very sweet but so bloody uptight about everything.
Bil has been away for a week so he left car with pil so that it "wasn't left in the street" it has a steering lock on and fil takes it for a drive each day! The car is an old banger worth about two hundred quid.
Kids can't even eat a banana without a table cloth,mat and plate
Leaving the house to walk to shops is a major ordeal. Costs hats gloves change of shoes everything switched off at the wall last minute run upstairs for wallets. I could have been there and back.
So I'm asking you to entertain me with similar stories to help me through the day.

My DD has a tiny sports car, he is quite small and round too. We call him Mr Toad and his car, "Mr Toad's wild ride".
He is convinced it is a vandal-with-trolley magnet so parks it all on it's own in the supermarket car park. He might as well leave it at home and walk so great is the distance he parks from the entrance.
He however regularly scrapes the sides of the car when manoeuvring into his HUGE double garage!

LaQueen - "Dave" (my father) parks at the far end of the car park over two spaces for fear anyone would damage his pride and joy. He drops Jean (my mother) at the door of the supermarket and then goes to the far end of the car park, walks to the supermarket, finds Jean, they do the shopping and pack the bags with military precision, and then she waits in the porch of the supermarket while he goes to the furthest end of the supermarket to get the car.

He is also another one who believes a car that is half full of fuel is half empty and insisted once on stopping at the nearest filling station and paying to fill my car. I should do that more often.

He also drives her everywhere. She can drive. But since they both retired, he takes her anywhere she needs to go. They never go anywhere alone, they come as a pair. I actually worried about this a few months ago when he was ill and I suddenly thought that if he died she hasn't hardly driven in 15 years .

LaQ -mum does that tap thing. With old milk cartons, which she then uses to water the garden. You're also not allowed to rise out the teapot, you have to go and rise it out over a plant so as not to waste water.

She has just turned 60, btw, so this is not a 'war rationing' thing.

cailin - god knows! Gradual loss, I suppose.

not switching on mobile phone in case it rundown down battery
refusing to answer ringing mobile phone as thought it would cost money
habitually fretting about health taking expensive placebo that quack sold for energy restoration
fussing,and declaring kids look scruffy, having to be restrained to prevent spitting on hanky to clean face

Thanks LRD it was my dad's dad and he had had a long and happy life, so while it's sad it's also nice iyswim :)

Unless you're sympathising with my dad's obsessive alphabetising of his CDs - yes that does get a bit much :o

the bottled water thing reminds me of my late Grandparents- used to run the tap for ages before a drink of water, all the run water went into old milk bottles for the kettle later.

My Gran also had a soap thingy, a mold to pop all the old slivers of soap and squeeze into a new bar. I found it fascinating as a child- she offered to get us one, I had to tell her we don't use soap! She was horrified!

I think my DSis, who just moved into her first ever flat, has started my whole family on the slippery slope to madness...... Myself and DB live too far away for our parents to visit, so this Christmas I visited home and I got to see DM out of her natural environment for the first time. She took slippers, she took food every time. DM also unplugs the TV each night but I find that sensible as it has no on/off just standby. So they are saving money.

eating out loudly insists on TAP WATER,none of that funny water.
stuffing condiments into pockets,despite fact we do in fact have ketchup at home

It wasn't the obsessive alphabetising, no!

I think someone said upthread this is all a mix of funny and a bit sad because it is the quirks you miss (or some of them anyway!).

I realized this morning I am well on my way to this - I've got a scoop in the porrige oats that does precisely the right amount and a mug that does the right amount of milk, and then does for coffee after so you don't need to wash it up. If the scoop is being washed up you need the blue spoon from the drawer, not just any one thing. I patiently explained this to DH before it occurred to me how it sounded.

I can actually see the not driving thing starting in my mum. She no longer drives at night I don't think, and whenever they go anywhere my dad drives. She goes out on her own so presumably she does still drive but it's worrying me. My dad recently bought a bigger car and has been ensuring she drives it every now and again just so she can.
She's mid 50s...

ooer LRD...it's the re-using the milk mug for coffee that does it I'm afriad. I bet you get all cats bum mouth if anyone ever gets a clean one :o

Condiment stuffing is a student thing, surely? Do elderly people (or in fact people in their 50s ) do it as well?

my dear old grandad used to have cut out bits of frozen food packaging with the instructions on so he could look up how to cook things, one time we had different things to eat and they were cooked at different temperatures, we had to cook them separately and he made me turn the oven off and on again so it would preheat to the correct temperature, bless him!

sorry that was aimed only at myself for using the term "elderly" to describe people in their 50s and 60s most of whom will be fitter than me
Already offended with a today, don't want to make a habit of it :)

Xfil is also a weather obsessive.

XH used to work about 50 miles away, motorway practically door to door so rarely more than an hour.

This was deemed "travelling" to work and he was much congratulated for his stamina.

Every morning xfil would text him with the weather forecast and his prediction for the implications of said weather on the driving conditions. Hints and tips would be included.

We used to refer to it as the morning report.

It arrived every day without fail between 7 and 7:30am as that is when xfil gets up. XH arrived at work at 6:30am.

I know I need help ....

I think this thread shows that 'elderly' is quite often an attitude of mind, isn't it?

My housemate had "indoor clothes" to prevent her transferring dirt from the outside onto the furniture.

My Nana uses pins to ensue all the folds in her net curtains are exactly parallel

condiment stuffing,hell if it isn't nailed down it's half inched straight to bag
carrys scissors and randomly takes cuttings from plants neighbours, in park,anywhere

LaQ my mum does that.

Making pasta and pasata for DS involves at least 3 shouts for instructions then a final summons to "come and have a look".

She's doing it at the same time as making a roast dinner for 11 people, and she was a bloody professional cook for over 20 years!

condiments reminds me, when I first met dh's parents, I was surprised to discover they never put salt and pepper out on the dining table. They had several 'cruet sets' but you had to ask specifically if you wanted a pinch of salt with your roasties. This wasn't a health kick, no idea why they thought salt was so... luxurious? that it could only be doled out very, very carefully if you really wanted some.

MIL tells everyone else her hearing aids don't work or hurt. I wear hearing aids myself so call her on this and tell her she needs to get used to them, get earmoulds adjusted, and they won't work in a drawer.
So she tried telling me the batteries kept running out and she didn't have any - so I gave her some. Since then she keeps getting lots of batteries just to give to me so the NHS doesn't 'waste' them on her...

The only explanation I can get out of her is that if she wears hearing aids, people will think she's deaf. As opposed to everyone shouting at her and her not understanding.

Though given FIL's ability to get worked up about the tiniest thing, like which teaspoon would be best to use in the mustard, and lots of grandchildren under 5, I suspect she just likes the peace and quiet now all the good telly has subtitles. Of course they can't program the DVD recorder so any outing has to be preceded by phone calls to ensure SIL or neighbour can record her favourite quiz show if they might not get back in time.

Bonus IL bingo points if FIL manages to shout about getting a programme recorded for MIL that she didn't want anyway. This is where we turn the conversation back to the wine - we have to try all of the ones they brought back from France last year in time for this year's trip. And very nice they are too. :)

tutting,loud tutting for no apparent reason.accompanied by pursed lip shesh
obsessed by buses and bus numbers,running commentary of look it's 44, oh another 44
audible gasp when told price of anything,followed by how much?

My beloved, darling stepfather is on the brink of total organisational madness since he recently retired.
We are all going on holiday together. On Christmas Day he presented 13 of us (including DC) a five page set of travel instructions, including exact times of collection from each of our various addresses right through to the cabin name, deck floor and approximate location in relation to the others.
We are travelling in July.

Elderly is an attitude, I don't think early 60s is old. Maybe we collect habits so insidiously that it all seems normal?

My own evidnce of this slippery slope:
I always get mine and DS's entire outfit ready for the next day. I've just remembered I am working from home tomorrow. I've put the office appropriate outfit (and undies) back in the wardrobe. Before this thread it would have stayed on the back of the door ready for Tuesday at 6:30am. I am not in the armed forces btw.

DH does the 'old slivers of soap and squeeze into a new bar'. At brunch he just performed his most annoying autopsy to remove non existent bacon fat.

DH has the potential to join the elders who prolong the goodbyes. DC and I call his extensive leave-taking " the farewell tour". He is also, without exception, the last to leave the house due to him needing to check every light, door, window, alarm, plug, etc. Even when driving the 2 mins it takes to get to Tesco.
I'm looking into nursing homes, he's only 44

When they go on holiday, even to a hotel, my parents take tea bags and my Mum bakes a cake specially to take the day before so they can have tea and cake on arrival. They go to the same country every year.

My Mum will on line bank on the ancient desk top computer but never in a million years on her Kindle Fire "it's different!"

My Mum arranges her whole day around the dogs meal times. Of which there are three a day. The first thing she asks on us arrival is "has your dog eaten Emma?" Then a big bustle to create a tasty dish for "Emma's poor boy!"

She only ever has her phone switched on when out of the house so my Dad can reach her if he needs too and holds it carefully next to her ear likes its am unexplored bomb as she talks.

Honestly I could be here all day!