- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Austin Babies
august8080
member
can I just vent about my MIL please?
august8080
member
Please add your vents to make me feel less petty 
Let me preface this with: I am grateful that my MIL loves us (well at least she loves DH and DS), buys us things, etc. I know it's the thought that counts, but as I'm unpacking the boxes of Xmas gifts that they shipped back to us from our visit in PA, I'm just getting irritated all over again.
OK, so she loooooves Christmas. With a passion. Goes totally overboard. Fine. To help her, and to try and prevent "disasters" from previous holidays, I emailed her back in OCTOBER (to try and catch her in advance of any holiday shopping).
I gave her a) a detailed size list on DS--top, bottom, one piece, shoes, everything b) a detailed size list on DH (whose sizes haven't changed in the 12 years I've known him, but she can't seem to remember)--pants, shirts-both dressy and non, underwear style preference (bc she always buys him underwear and always the wrong kind, even though the preference has never changed!) c) a detailed gift list idea for all three of us, especially for DS, including links to Amazon so she could easily purchase or at least see pictures.
What we got for Xmas: clothing for DS ranging in sizes from 18 months-4T, toys for DS (none from the list, which is fine, I was trying to be helpful or at least give her an IDEA of what was age appropriate and/or interesting to him) ranging in appropriateness from 6 months (a ducky suction that goes on the high chair tray to keep them entertained) to some Leap Pad thing that I have no clue about--looks good for a 4 or 5 year old?? Clothing for DH ranging in size from L-XXL (um, he's not XXL) (and I'm talking about dress shirts--the same brand, same style shirt--one is a L and one is a XXL), the wrongfreaking underwear and a ton of golf gear (he golfs once, maybe twice a year). Oh, and a crapton of things I hate.
OMG, I sound like such a spoiled brat but I just needed to get that out there. Thanks for listening.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: can I just vent about my MIL please?
Um, yeah. Let's just say I get it. GAH!
At least maybe some nice charity will receive a kind donation of XXL men's shirts?
(read it. you know you want to.)
anderson . september 2008
vivian . february 2010
mabel . august 2012
Exactly. I have a Goodwill bag, or 5 going today. I feel bad because I donate so much of the stuff she gets us every year, but I hate clutter and it's just stuff we'll never use and plain don't like!
Here's mine:
When MIL does anything "wrong", whether intentional or not, her first priority is to establish that she's not the one to blame. This includes pretending like nothing ever happened, for example, when she royally eff'ed up my car somehow and let me to drive off in it the next morning. Um, she knew something was wrong, whether or not it was actually her fault, it would have been nice to have a little heads up so I could get that shiz taken care of, rather than getting all ready for work and then not being able to go anywhere because I then had to figure out how to get my car fixed. OR when she dropped a bowl full of soggy cereal all over our kitchen floor. I understand if she's unable to bend down and clean it up herself, but the least she could do was say Gosh, I'm really sorry, but I made a mess. Instead she left the kitchen and said nothing only for me to find it (all soaked into our kitchen mat) later and pretend like it never happened. OR when she didn't set up the ironing board correctly, and the legs collapsed, and the freaking heavy, pointy iron fell directly on my foot. It was an accident, but her first response: Oh my gosh! I did not do anything! Really?? No concern for the extreme pain I was in, but adamantly insisting that it's not her fault. Gah!! She does this all. the. time. It embarrasses the hell out of DH because it demonstrates in no uncertain terms how self-centered she can be. It just pisses me off.
Ok.
I feel better.
omg, Feisty. There are no words.
My MIL brings her own food when she comes to visit us. Not unique Russian food. Her own bananas, blueberries, lunchmeat...it's not an organic/inorganic thing, either. And she takes whatever's left with her when she leaves. When I make a dinner, she makes her own food, and then offers to make something for DH as well.
Umm...
Could I have the TPain Mic?
DH's parents do this, and I do the same thing with exact sizes, multiple links, etc.
.
DH still gets flannel shirts for Christmas, and white hanes Vneck tshirts (he's never worn a vneck). Oh, and we get no less than 3 new Christmas ornaments, and no less than 2 picture frames a year. Last year we got 4 flashlights between us. DH left 3 of them at his parents house when we left
Thankfully, they don't buy us any big ticket items b/c we can't fly back with it and usually just give us a check for something so we can buy it once we get home. Unfortunately about half the stuff we get from them ends up in the next Goodwill run.
Oh, and the wierdest thing I got was about 3 yrs ago from them - it was a white corded phone, with a permanent marker set that went with it ,so I could "decorate" my own phone. That was awesome, especially since they know we don't even have a home phone line.... Goodwill.
Oooh, that would piss me the hell off. My MIL also brings a crapton of food with her whenever she comes over, but not just for her. Instead, to insinuate that we don't buy the right kinds of healthy food, or that me being pregnant (they came in Sept and Dec this past fall) I'm unable to properly host and feed them. In Sept, she asked me three times what food items they could bring, and three times I told her "Nothing, thanks! Just bring yourselves, we've got the meals all taken care of" I also mentioned that we were low on storage space for anymore food. The last time she asked and I answered that way, she said "well, we're stopping by *name of their local badass farmer's market* so just tell us what you'd like". Again, me: "Nothing, thank you - we really don't have the refrigerator space for anymore produce, so we're all set".
Yeah. She showed up with half of the freaking market. Seriously. All kinds of crap - I can't even remember what all, but mostly stuff I already had! I mean LOADS of food, when I specifically told her several times we didn't need ANY. I made several comments about how it was too much, unnecessary, no room, cant possibly eat it all before it spoils, etc. and she said, "well I just didn't want you to go to any trouble in your condition" (in my condition? Am I ill? Nope. Just pregnant and easily irritated). I told her, "You're family. I feed my family. It's no trouble to feed my family, I do it every single day, with all of the same kinds of food you have here. See?" and I showed her all of the bananas, carrots, peaches, cantaloupe, etc I already had that she brought more of. If she had offered to make something for DH other than what I'd already made I would have freaking gone off on her.
I feel HORRIBLE complaining about my MIL because she is seriously the sweetest woman you'll ever meet, and she loves me like a daughter. But damn, she's annoying! Just won't take no for an answer, refuses to sit and relax and be a guest in our house no matter how much I try to insist. It then becomes a battle of will between us, where she always insists on doing stuff - mostly dishes -which she has to constantly ask where everything goes because she can't just take some initiative to open cabinets and see what goes where. It ends up being so much more trouble than it's worth and I wish she would just sit the hell down and let us wait on her like any normal guest in our house would!
When 3 Became 4
that sounds like something cool a teenager would've gotten in the late 80s for the "second line" <-- remember those??!?
Mine does the same thing.
Infuriating.
She brought her own FLOUR for Christmas. FLOUR. Like my flour wasn't as good as her flour.
"The House We Built."
A journey of building the dream.
How can you not love that t-pain mic? I mean, if I had one, I would use it in class all.the.time!!! I am not kidding. It is making me laugh just thinking about it.