minihaha

My friend has her parents visting them all for the first time and is basically a nervous wreck. I have my mother in law visiting us for 2 weeks next Fri and I am becoming a nervous wreck.

My mil is soo helpfull tho even hoovering at 7 am arghh, and always goes out of her way to rearange my kitchen cupboards for me, see so nice eh..

Anyone else find it somewhat nerve wracking when they visit?

I have a whole week of cleaning from top to bottom just so I can have a larf when she insist's on cleaning something that has already been done haha.


So Mrs M may the force be with you. You can escape to mine anytime you need. Oh actually can I escape to yours please....

xx Mrs minihaha

Gremmie

my MIL came once, slept the first nite. but when she woke the next morning,decided to as you say hoover,dusting,tidy up the kitchen etc. so i grabbed the kids and wife jummped into the car and drove off When we returned 4hrs latter MIL was sat in the lounge fumming she stood up and accused us of being bad hosts,so i accused her of being a bad guest. She never cleened again

Alberta_Rose

I feel exactly the same way. I hate it when parents or in-laws come and start cleaning/tidying .... I feel it as a form of criticism. However, I was talking to a (Canadian) friend at work re the same subject, and she was very surprised to hear that. She said she would be more put out if her mum came to the house and didn't help out to tidy it! ..... she wasn't so sure about the MIL doing the same thing though!

However I can sympathise a bit with the olds too .... especially if she was awake early, probably due to the time difference, and sat waiting for you all to surface, decided she may as well be doing something useful I expect!

My parents drove me mad when they came though .... cos they wanted to hoover/tidy/ even IRON (I don't iron!!!), and really they were not much good at it, due to being old and somewhat infirm and poor-sighted. I just wished they could have relaxed and just enjoyed spending time with us!

Journeyman Electrician

Lucky lucky people I wish I had MIL

Piff Poff

My MIL when she visits wants to be waited on hand and foot, driven around when she feels like it and complains about everything - even if it's what she's asked for:curse:

She's come twice now - if she comes again I won't be here!!!!

Nightmare woman.

burton bunch

Eh you Bridgey girls dont forget I have 7 weeks till my in laws arrive too - dont leave me out

And yes you can both help me put up with Phil's dad

boxerdog03

We've got a viewing on Wednesday, so can you send them via wigan and they can clean for me

Sharon

cov-canuck

My in-laws arrived for the first time 6 weeks after we landed. We were staying in my brother's guest room (no room for them) and had started our jobs 2 weeks before, so couldn't take any time off. They had to stay in a hotel, it was December, and they did nothing but complain the whole week about how cold it was (it was -2), and that there was nothing for them to do (well, duh, that's why we said wait until we have a house and can take vacation!).

They came back right at the end of September and stayed with us. It occurred to me that they'd never actually stayed with US before (although we'd stayed with them). We now had the rearranging of cupboards, either washing up by hand (i.e. rinsing a coffee cup that's been sitting around all day) instead of putting it in the dishwasher or deliberately going through all of the crockery then complaining there are no more mugs/plates, etc. We asked them what they wanted to do when they visited, their response "nothing, we just want to see you!"...very helpful, particularly since we can't stand them at the best of times.

OH delayed the start of a new job for a week to spend the week with them. I'd originally arranged to take 2 days off to spend with them, but they drove me so nuts I went into work instead (), they then bitched about that so I had to take a day off later in the week. We paid for everything, and in many cases ordered for them because talking to Canadians is far too confusing (bear in mind that I and my immediate family are Canadian, and they've been around us for 10 years!).

They kept asking to do some painting around the house. We kept making excuses - we foolishly accepted their offer in the last house and spent weeks removing the paint from windows, furniture, carpets, etc. Finally OH gave in and said they could paint the downstairs powder room - a 4x6 room with nothing but a sink, window and toilet. After they left OH spent time in there removing the paint from the sink, window and toilet!!

Above all, the ignorance and blatant racism annoyed me the most. I'm sorry, but in today's society, in a country that prides itself on being multicultural, uttering the n-word on your first day is inexcusable (OH bit his mother's head off for that one, told her the word is not welcome in our house or around us - he knows I find it REALLY offensive. Her response was to kind of sneer at him and said "Oh, I forgot YOU don't use that word", as if there's something wrong with us). A few days later they were asking if we have any problems with our neighbours, the Mexicans. Our neighbours were born in Canada, their families emigrated from Malta a few generations ago!

There was also the revelation midway through their visit that FIL had informed MIL that Canadian toilets don't accept toilet paper, so she had been storing it in a plastic bag and bringing it down daily and putting it in my KITCHEN garbage can!! Even when I corrected him and said no, you can flush the same stuff you can in England, she was too frightened to do it so continued to bring the freaking bag down every morning! He also told her that there were two flushes on our toilet - you push down very hard and quickly for a quick flush, or you push down and hold it down for about 20 seconds for a long flush. Um...no...we have a normal toilet just like the one in their house, and if you do what he suggest you'd break it. This is stuff that FIL made up to make himself sound like he knows what he's talking about.

ARGGGGHH. I'm getting all wound up again, and I'd only just started to recover from their visit!

fuschiagirl

:curse:

Elaine B.

Last time my FIL showed up unannounced (at 8am asleep in his pick-up truck parked in our driveway) I told time he would have to call in future. A reasonable request you would think? His response however was to leave in a huff and then a few days later he called at 4am (our daughter was a few weeks old at the time we also have a 4 year old boy) to let me know what a bitch I am. He left 4 or 5 messages on our answer phone between 4am and 6am. One classic quote was that "you have a real bitch attitude" and he would come and see his son "when ever the f***" he wanted and I couldn't stop him. He seemed to forget that his son had also told him not to just show up without calling first. I should add he has a drinking problem, is racist, sexist and homophobic not the sort of guy you would want around children. The next day my OH left a message on his voice mail to say he's no longer welcome in our house. We haven't seen him since.

ann m

OMG - what horror's you lot have for family and in-laws!

I might momentarily feel sorry for myself (both my parents are now dead) 'cos no-one will be coming to visit me. Hubby's parents are lovely, but his mum can't fly and I don't think his dad will be over next year. So my cupboards, and cleaning standards are safe, with no 'helpful' guests due any time soon Sounds like I should be grateful ?!

Elaine B.

I must say my OH's mum and Step-dad are great as are my own mum and dad. Luckily we only have one idiot to deal with. The sad thing is my parents are in Ireland and MIL and step-dad are in Montreal. The idiot lives the closest to us. Another good thing is he lost his license for a year for drinking and driving so he shouldn't be making any surprise visits in the near future.

Madmac

My own dear ma ma came to visit about 5 weeks ago. Talk about Hell on Earth (with her as the avatar of Satan).

She complained about the heat and then about the cold. She didn't want to go out of the house unless it was to visit another bloody Dollar store.

She managed to miss the Train from Windsor to Guelph (on a return trip from Michigan) and I had to meet my cousin in London, on a Friday evening, having driven down that suicide strip known as the 401 to pick her up. She then demanded a refund from VIA rail...and you know what - she got it!!!!!!!!

She left her cardigan in Michigan and my cousin posted it to me. Of course it arrived after she had left so I had to post it to the UK. So almost $30 later, she gets her cardie (which probably only cost 20 pounds).

The list goes on but I live with the solace that 3500 miles of land and ocean now separate us.

minihaha

Wow I feel positively lucky now that my MIL is only a clean freak.

Just highlights to me that we still luv them for all there freakish behaviour. Even if we are momentarily tempeted to say no to them coming we dont.

I do know how lucky I am to have her visit us and her Grandchildren. I lost my Dad suddenly in July, I hadnt seen him in 2 years. All I ever wanted was for him to come and see how we were doing. I struggle with how much I miss him everyday and it does make me appreciate my family that can visit.

Karma to everyone x Mrs minihaha

R I C H

Our toilet has 2 flush options - one delivers 3.5l, the other 6l. I feel like a freak now

Both sets of parents are retired, so they visit for several months at a time which inevitably means they have to fend for themselves and fit in around our work. It takes the pressure off feeling like we've got to entertain them every day, but means a long haul if they start 'meddling'