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.

[farewellfigure]

Absolutely love this thread. I'm terrified though that it will come to us all eventually. What will our DCs think of us when we're older with our weird little idiosyncrasies?

We went to a holiday home with ILs once. We'd been driving for 7 hours and I was gasping for a drink. I got a glass from the cupboard and MIL yelled, 'NO! It hasn't been washed up'. I kid you not, they were taking out every perfectly clean item of glass, crockery, cutlery, the whole lot, and washing it. It was the first thing they did when they got to the holiday house, before even unpacking. I was so thirsty I had to just say I didn't care and used it anyway. They still mention the time farewell used a DIRTY GLASS.

DMum has her funny little ways as well. She has a kitchen bin that lives next to the dishwasher. Every time she loads the dishwasher she has to move it out of the way. When we get there DH moves it to the perfect little bin-sized gap about 3 feet away. Then DMum moves it back again. It makes them laugh. But I also find I'm turning into her. I have to have a cuppa at 11am and 3pm whether I'm thirsty or not. She does this and it used to make me laugh. I'd say, 'But what if I'm thirsty at 2.30?'. I now clock-watch until 3pm when I'm 'allowed' to have my tea. ARGH.

[mumkee]

This thread has seriously cheered me up! :D

My father in law takes about half an hour to park his car, he choses a spot, tries to park in it, then decides a better one has come up and move to it!
He repeats this a few times, backing in and out of a space at a snails pace to 'straighten up'

My nanna has an obsession with tops and jackets covering your back too, if your shirt has ridden up a bit at the back exposing your skin, she will rag it down in all weathers because 'your kidneys are out'

[milkmilklemonade12]

Oh God I'm crying at 'your kidneys are out!' hahahahaaaaa!

[spancake]

I bloody love my pils, but the things they do drive me crackers. Everything is military! Last weekend they got us opening a gazebo in the garden to a very specific 'team' routine, it looked like we were rehearsing some odd ritual, it was so pre use!! Neither of the have massive appetite and today we had a "picnic" consisting of a slice of bread cut in to quartets with cheese thinly sliced on top, two cherry tomatoes (halved) and two slices of cucber each. They have recently acquired a caravan, the DRAMA of using it is astonishing!

[hifi]

My mums neighbour gives them 12 potatoes a week from his veg patch. No more, no less. He also practices double daylight saving in summer time, he's an hour ahead of everyone else. Even more daylight.

[AmIbeingTreasonable]

"I think it starts with obsessive tea drinking. I drink loads and only use certain tea bags and it has to be made a certain way strong with little milk or I literally can't drink it. Ds gets stroppy cos I just can't drink his mugs of beige luke warm slop. The tea bag doesn't work properly when it's not hot enough fgs.
I also worry about being unable to have tea and if necessary take tea bags or a flask."

^ledkr are you me? I do almost exactly the same except I like lots of milk in my (strong) tea. I set the microwave timer for 5 minutes so that it's brewed to perfection exactly my liking and at friends houses I use the timer on my phone and make it myself so that it's perfect to my liking

Oh and it has to be in certain mugs only which I handwash so they last longer as the dishwasher takes the glaze off over time I have 6 of them and don't like anyone else to use them

[Howlingwithlaughter]

I remember arriving late at pil's one weekend due to our car breaking down. Rather than make a new pot of coffee, or God forbid instant, my mil warmed the leftover plunger coffee in a saucepan!
I also remember my mil flat out refusing to have her corsage (or whatever you call it!) for our wedding from the florist we were using as she preferred to use the florist they used for my sil's wedding. Even though that florist was nowhere near us!
Thank god DH is nothing like his family!

[SmoakAndShado]

PIL have exclaimed at us eating fishcakes "on a Sunday?!".

Once I brought a pie round for Sunday lunch & FIL was aghast. Think he told all his friends in disgust.

I have never taken any notice of whether that loo roll dispenser cover thing is up or down at their house but apparently they keep it up and apparently I leave it down. Now this is unfortunate as I may well have been needlessly bugging them for up to 14 YEARS. They have propped it up to thwart my dastardliness. I should just get them a loo roll dispenser without a cover.

I confused my own mum once by giving her the wrong kind of spoon.

My dad was concerned about using my "industrial" toaster because it holds 4 slices and also at it being a palaver to eat in another room where there is plenty of space, instead of round the teeny kitchen table.

He took great pains to tell me how to use a microwave & not to put anything metal in it. I was in my late 20s at the time & was acquainted with microwave foibles.

Bless em all.

[SmoakAndShado]

On the other hand, I (to DH's derision) fill the kettle before going to bed. I like being able to just get up & flick a switch to get my first tea of the day.

I also leftovers in the fridge until I can't remember how old they are & throw them out. What I REALLY could do with is Tupperware with different coloured lids so I can eg put Monday's leftovers in the green lidded ware etc. OR I could write the day of the week on the lid & woe betide anyone who uses my Friday ware on a Wednesday!
I think I'm on a slippery slope but it'll be fun!

[OrangeSquashTallGlass]

'On the other hand, I (to DH's derision) fill the kettle before going to bed. I like being able to just get up & flick a switch to get my first tea of the day.'

I do the opposite Smoak. I empty the kettle every morning and refill with fresh water.

Once (before DP knew this about me) she offered to bring me a cuppa in bed one morning and I got so stressed in my head about whether she'd used 'fresh' water or not I couldn't enjoy it. I think I just blurted it out in the end because she always puts fresh in now. Or at least she tells me she does...

[Twistergeese]

My PIL couldn't visit any day one week as they were expecting a phone call on Wednesday. Yup, that that rules out the whole week.

[tiredvommachine]

This thread is gold

[Thegreatunslept]

Never been so sad to get to the end of a thread. Thank u all for the hours of entertainment.

[iloveredwine]

This has been fantastic kept me up reading well into the night. Pil do most of this and I refuse to go to their house now as when ds was a couple of weeks old they put his Moses basket on the dining table with a painters sheet underneath in case he made a mess! Don't get me started....

[MerylPeril]

I watched MIL wash a tomato once of AN HOUR - under a running tap (which I kept switching off) she would look at it with great interest every 10 minutes and the put it under the running tap. FFS
every vegetable had to be perfect and huge chunks cut off if they weren't. She wouldn't eat home grown veg as they were 'dirty'

Everything had to be soaked before washing up - so there were always cups and glasses full of water. Even glasses used for water would be sat soaking.

[passportmess]

My parents never remove the plastic covering from new remote controls. We have to press the buttons through the plastic

[Lunde]

My DF asked the staff in McDonalds for cutlery.

MIL will only eat food from posh supermarkets even if it is exactly the same brand - she can taste the difference if it is sold in a different shop apparently. Although she never seemed to notice when I bought her branded items from Lidl and put them in a posh carrier bag to save her money.

My DM used to always complain about faulty electrical items - totally unrelated of course to her unwillingness to read the instructions to work them properly.

DM also had a mobile that she never used it was only for "emergencies" and she refused to make calls as they were "too expensive" - not as expensive though as losing over £40 in credit as she hadn't turned the mobile on for 2 years,

We also have relatives who insist on meticulously organising family parties to the extent of a written school-type timetable in the hall detailing activities, mealtimes and chores for each person. No sitting and chatting with a cup of tea allowed.

[storynanny]

My late mother insisted on washing up the washing up bowl, drying it and putting it away in the washing up bowl cupboard. This happened several times a day as everything was washed up immediately after use, even a cup and saucer. ( obviously no mugs as they were common)

[ShowMePotatoSalad]

If we go out for a meal FIL takes all our leftovers home to heat up for himself at a later date...a good meal out can last him about a week apparently.

One time I wanted to take my pizza home but FIL had already claimed it!!

Never met such a well to do couple who scrimp and save as much as they do. Must be why they're so well off in the first place. The central heating goes on in their house only on special occasions "as a treat".

[ShowMePotatoSalad]

Also MIL won't drive more than 56mph because any faster isn't as economic apparently. They've got a tiny car and I can just imagine them getting beeped at on the motorway by giant lorries.

[littlesallyracket]

Not in-laws, but at work the other week I had to stand behind a colleague who was washing a 1.5kg punnet of tiny cherry tomatoes individually and drying each one with kitchen paper before placing them in a bowl that he keeps on his desk. He wouldn't step aside for a second so I could fill the kettle. I had to wait for him to finish.

I have another colleague who uses a timer to ensure his tea bag has been stewing in his mug for exactly five and a half minutes before he removes it.

[Badders123]

Not in laws but work too...school kitchen.
The cook has complained she had to throw 2 jugs of water away
Tap water.
Ffs

[Jenny2710]

Lots of these things are a hangover of the war and rationing,make do and mend,poverty. Also they have nothing to fill their time,another good reason not to retire.
Having said that my mum tells me how to hang out her washing,how to put stuff in cupboards,she is hanging onto the controls even as she fades due to ill health. Bless her.

[LlandudnoLlandudno]

It's sad but I am reading this thread thinking how lovely it will be when I have the time to do all these things. I currently have a toddler and would love to have the time to put all the food in the house into Tupperware

[FurryLittleTwerp]

My PILs turn the heating off if the go out, in case the regularly serviced, modern boiler blows up while they are not there supervising it.

If we go out for lunch with them in the colder months, they go in their own car, so they can set off home before the rest of us, in order to put the heating back on & warm up the house before we get there

Quite frankly, I'd rather be out of the house when the bloody thing blows up, rather than in the house "supervising it"