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

897 replies

ledkr · 05/01/2013 11:04

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 Hmm
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.

OP posts:
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babamummy · 05/01/2013 13:04

FIL uses 2 car parking spaces. DH was mortified when he had to go to home base with him recently and used two spaces; don't know what he does if a car park is busy? He has a Golf which must be about 10 years old now and is absolutely immaculate.

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ItsOkayItsJustMyBreath · 05/01/2013 13:05

I am weeping with laughter, thank you!

JaponicaTroggs that is the best thing I have ever heard maybe an exaggeration!

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craftynclothy · 05/01/2013 13:06

MIL took an hour to make a picnic for a trip out once. I wouldn't mind but it was only two ham sandwiches and a tub of strawberries to share between 6 of us

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NotMostPeople · 05/01/2013 13:06

My PIL's have a system for the dishwasher but still wash all cups and glasses by hand - why?
FIL keeps all alcohol locked and only he is allowed the key, this is a hangover from when DH and his brothers were at home and would help themselves as teenagers. DH is the youngest and is 47! and we obviously don't live with them. So MIL can never offer anyone a drink because she can't unlock it, but this is a mans job anyway Hmm.
They have also turned the hot water off and only turn it on if you want a bath (must be quick and certainly not every day) - this might make sense if they had a water tank, but they have a combi. You have to wash your hands in cold water and ask for the water to be put on to wash up the glasses and mugs that can't go in the dishwasher.
They worry endlessly about their garden and mowing the lawn etc even though it's pristine.
FIL gets first refusal of all food, puddings, biscuits etc even over non family guests.

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ItsOkayItsJustMyBreath · 05/01/2013 13:08

ledkr you have been naughty and now must face the consequences, you will eat your lunch young lady Grin

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ItsOkayItsJustMyBreath · 05/01/2013 13:09

I love the fact that I am more uptight than my parents the drunken slobs Wink

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SoggySummer · 05/01/2013 13:18

My FIL once refused to eat dinner because I had cut the carrot into Batons and he can only eat carrots that are cut into discs. I kid you not. Typically he got MIL to explain this to me because he is not "man" enough to explain this to me himself.

It was a sad sad day that my idiot DH tried to introduce them to the computer. We have been paying the price ever since. FIL has a spread sheet and a computer record every sodding thing - even tins in the kitchen cupboard because god forbid if you should need to know if you have any baked beans left you may actually walk from lounge to kitchen and open the cupboard to see. No - why do this when you can go upstairs and fire up the 15yo huge desk top computer (that my kids cant belive PCs ever looked so huge) and look it up on a spread sheet.

That alone would be bad enough BUT - FIL cant always work the PC and forgets what has been filed under what, bearing in mind its not just food but drink, cleaning products, loo roll, music - (that are on LPs not downloads), photos (that are in physical albums not digital) etc etc - You get this picture???

Theres loads more but I would hate to hog the thread.

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Sparklingbrook · 05/01/2013 13:20

I love my DM and DF dearly but there are things I don't get that they do. A selection-

Mobile never turned on. Phones are for DF to ring people not for people to ring him.
Nothing that arrives with a handbook/instruction manual can be used until manual is read cover to cover.
One lot of curtains in the lounge never opened due to sun possibly fading the carpet.
Dishwasher never used. At all.

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DumSpiroSperHoHoHo · 05/01/2013 13:26

My MIL (and Dh has inherited the habit) does the thing of wrapping up like Sherpa Tensing whenever she leaves the house.

Anytime between October and April, leaving the house will necessitate coats, hat, scarf, gloves, waterproof, umbrella...we took our niece to the Zoo with her a few years back and she had the poor kid wrapped up in all of this, sat in her pushchair with a hot water bottle filled from a flask on arrival and wrapped in a tea towel - she could hardly move!

She is also obsessed with slipper wearing and tuts every time she pops in (unfortunately we're on her route to work) because DD is invariably running around barefoot.

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nameuschangeus · 05/01/2013 13:35

Thank you this thread has cheered me up and served to assure me that I'm not alone in owning anal parents

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BlingLoving · 05/01/2013 13:36

Oh these are brilliant.

Mil uses her dishwasher... But doesn't trust it so she runs it twice. Every time!

She also is obsessed with small pink sponges and uses them for no longer than a day at a time. I nicked a few last time actually because they are great for bottles! Grin

Very sweetly, when we visit, she tries to make sure she has all the treats we like in... But the result is that we have learnt to NEVER comment that we like a particular biscuit or chocolate as we will arrive for a visit and she will have 3 boxes of every great we like.

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Sparklingbrook · 05/01/2013 13:39

Right. Are you sitting down? I have a self catering holiday one for you....

When going away for three nights self catering DM takes 6 slices of bread for breakfast each morning, and 6 Weetabix. Not the whole loaf or the whole box. Confused They go by quite a large car so not a space issue. Confused

Makes me smile.

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NotMostPeople · 05/01/2013 13:40

Oh and the boxes, if an appliance has come in a box the box must be saved. We recently had to go in the loft and it was almost entirely full of twenty years worth of cardboard boxes.

Also anything of any worth must be marked with their initials in tippex! This includes suitcases, remote controls etc.

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Sparklingbrook · 05/01/2013 13:43

My Dad has one of those Dymo? tape machines. That you can print labels with. Grin

YY to the boxes-v important. I do keep mine for a year though.

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LindyHemming · 05/01/2013 14:01

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LindyHemming · 05/01/2013 14:05

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phantomnamechanger · 05/01/2013 14:05

its the amount of serving dishes and spoons MIL used that gets me - it makes twice as much washing up for a roast dinner and there really is no need. Then washing up in one bowl of water which ends up like soup before your half done, and drying with a soggy tea towel. i take over the washing up there now - using lots of clean hot water, but have banned them from washing up in my house, where we dont dry up but leave to air dry

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LindyHemming · 05/01/2013 14:07

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HorsesDogsNails · 05/01/2013 14:08

My MIL food shops for the exact number of people she is feeding for the exact number of days...... So, if you drop in unannounced you don't even get offered a biscuit but if it's a planned visit you have to eat the offered cake/biscuit/doughnut because you know she's bought it for you!

When DH lived at home she would buy 10 slices of ham and 10 packets of crisps to do packed lunches...... If anyone ate a packet as a random snack they didn't get it in their lunch the next day!! Tight as she is.....

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JellicleCat · 05/01/2013 14:09

This has made me howl with laughter, I thought my Dad was the only one who did these things.
Meals only at the table, fully laid. Breakfast laid the night before.
Wash the dishes before they go in the dishwasher, except the pans which were washed by hand.
Kep tthe instuctions, and boxes, for every appliance ever owned
Everything turned off at the wall when not in use
Curtains closed whenever the sun came out in case the carpet faded
Windows shut in the summer in case the flies came in.

Visiting in the summer to a dark, hot house was always fun.

He never owned a mobile or a computer, but would definitely have kept the router in a drawer when not in use - priceless. Grin

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rechargemybatteries · 05/01/2013 14:11

My parents are generally lovely but my father is IN CHARGE of the remote control, the DVD player, the sky tv, he nearly has a heart attack when the kids arrive and just put a DVD on without asking him.

My mother would not change channel without asking him even if he's not watching the television she goes and gets him to change the channel or put a dvd on or put her music back on again on her CD player.

And don't even start me on the dishwasher. Everything must be washed BEFORE it goes in the dishwasher. Then it must be placed in the dishwasher but only my father can put the dishes in the dishwasher in the right order so my mother calls him after she has washed them all and gets him to put them in the dishwasher.

Everything is just such a palaver.

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LindyHemming · 05/01/2013 14:12

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rechargemybatteries · 05/01/2013 14:13

And yes to everything off at the wall and yes to instructions and boxes for every appliance they have ever owned and yes to meals at the table and breakfast laid directly after supper. Always cereal. In round tupperware plastic bowls with lids. Horrible. They make the breakfast taste funny.

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LindyHemming · 05/01/2013 14:18

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rechargemybatteries · 05/01/2013 14:19

A conversation in my mother and father's house goes like this (the shop is round the corner it's only a one minute walk it's open 7am til 11pm)

Dave, should we go to the shop for milk?

I don't know Jean how much milk have we got?

I don't know Dave shall I go and look?

I think you maybe should Jean we wouldn't want to run out of milk

(Mother goes to fridge in kitchen)

I don't know Dave there's nearly half a jug will that be enough do you think?

I don't know Jean what do we need it for for the rest of the day?

Well Dave I was going to do macaroni cheese but if there's only half a jug of milk I could do bolognaise?



And then they eventually decide no they will go to the shop for milk.

Dave will I go or do you want to come with me?

I don't know Jean do you want me to come with you?

I don't mind.

No, I''ll come with you.



Shall we take the dog Jean?





It drives me demented.

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