Friday, December 29, 2006

My Crazy In-laws have left

I hope that everyone had a great holiday. Mine was pretty good. My in-laws came for Christmas after all, just 3 days. I tolerated it quite well as I persued the "leave the room and go do something else" strategy. My MIL is crazy. She always wants us to do the 4 hour drive into the frozen North to visit them and I have just refused. Our car cannot hold 2 kids, 90 lb dog, 2 adults, Xmas gifts, baby stuff, luggage etc. I suppose that we could rent a car but I think that the retired people should make the trip.

Okay, everyone complains about there in-laws. What makes mine special?

Story #1. MIL suggests putting the 4 year old on the Greyhound bus to make the trip, by HIMSELF. Yes, it would probably be about 8 hours with all the stops. I was trying to be diplomatic, but the best I could do was "Ask me again in 10 years!" Luckily my husband piped up with it was out of the question.

Story #2 MIL is definitely in the glass is half empty school and she is not sure with what the glass has been filled. Her most positive comment ever was when we went out for Chinese buffet. She said "Normally when we go out the food is bad, too expensive and makes me feel sick but that was not bad."

Story #3 When her daughter got married, her new SIL asked, "What should I call you now? Mom or you First Name" She answered Mrs X would be fine.

Story #4 This holiday I got a new toaster oven. I was thrilled as the old one was only toasting one side at a time. MIL came up with this long story at the table about how she had bought and returned three toaster ovens as they would only toast one side of the bread. She said that the person at returns had told her that it was because people liked bagels and you only wanted to toast one side of the bagel. So she kept the last one, but it has never really worked. Blah, blah, blah. She went on for at least 15 minutes. No other topic could interupt her. (Believe me, I tried) I wanted to run away screaming. My new toaster, by the way, toasts both sides of the bread.

Story #5 She loves stories of death and disease, naturally. She started to talk about the story of teenagers who were strangling themselves for kicks and some of them died. Of course, this was in front of my 4 year old. She was unhappy when I suggested that we shouldn't discuss it in front of my oldest. I pointed out that he asks questions later, so we know that he is listening.

My husband suggested that we could go away for a weekend and have his parents look after the kids. I don't think that is likely to happen in the near future.

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