More Reasons I Can’t Stand My In Laws

1. They purposefully start arguments between me and my spouse

This happens less since we figured it out.  Now we sort of see it coming and put the brakes on.  They’re crafty though, so it still works some of the time. They have a lot of success when we are stressed out in the middle of the work week because we aren’t communicating as well then. They’ve also discovered that they need to wait to start poking the fire until we aren’t physically in the same place.  

We’re still working on a solution to this one, but I know it involves us being on the same page and communicating at all times. Unfortunately, that sounds a lot easier than it sometimes is.

2. They go through our stuff when they are at my house

It took me a while to figure this one out too. I’m forgetful, so it would be easy for me to not remember where I put something. It would be easy for my son to open the door to the office (where he shouldn’t be) and leave it open.  Except that he can’t open the office door because there’s a child lock on it.  It would also be easy for me to leave the coloring books out on the table and forget that I did that. Except that I’m fairly certain I didn’t leave them at your house where I haven’t been in a few days so how did they get over there today when they were at my house last night? 

That coupled with finding various things “reorganized” has led me to believe that they may be going through our things. I’m not really sure why. It makes me pretty uncomfortable though.

3. They insist on bringing food over that they know we don’t eat

It’s sort of nice that they try to bring over food all the time. Sort of annoying, but I know they mean well.  Here’s the thing… you know that your son doesn’t eat fish. Never in his life has he ever liked fish of any kind. So why do you always insist on giving us seafood? It takes up space in my fridge and ends up in the trash. I know they say “we just can’t cook for two people” and “we always make too much,” but they’re not solving any issues by bringing over fish… they’re just pawning the issue off on us.

4. They try to force our kids to give them kisses on the mouth

I’m not a fan of forced affection. I think it can be dangerous to teach kids that they must kiss someone. Holding my son’s head and forcing him to kiss you while he tries to turn away…. Well they’re lucky I couldn’t physically make it over there fast enough. 

5. They talk about the way we parent our kids to other relatives behind our backs

I didn’t learn about this until recently. This one doesn’t just make me angry, this one really hurts. I don’t understand why they would feel the need to criticize us to family members behind our backs. 

I promise I wouldn’t break down into tears and become a sniffling puddle like my mother in law did when I politely asked her to please call before coming over. 

6. They STILL won’t stop doing our laundry

I mentioned this in the last post, but it has gotten so much worse! Last week, my mother in law actually went into our laundry room and opened the washer and dryer to make sure there was no laundry we weren’t telling her about. Despite our insistence that we do not want her to do our laundry, she wanted to take it back to her house and do it to “help out.” That doesn’t sound like helping to me. That sounds like a major boundary issue.

Okay ladies, time to weigh in. What drives you crazy about your in laws? What really gets under your skin? I know I’m not the only one so fess up and you’ll feel better.

Written by: Meghan Wilson