Funny facts about your MIL :)

OMG MIL's are funny. No it's my turn to share when I visited India in 2011 the neighbor's near my in laws house are not that well off so every day she will give them rice and what ever is left over after my father in law eats. One day my FIL came a bit late to eat I kept the plate and water but noticed no food in the counter my MIL as a daily routine gave the food to them even before my FIL eats I can't stop laughing, you know what was more embarrassing I have to go know on their house and ask the food back OMG I pitty my FIL, my MIL is funny.

 

Few months into marriage our ILs visited us. I was terribly sick with cough/cold that time but had to go to work since it was a crucial time in the project (also did not want to stay home with them). My MIL very seriously came and told me that she would ask FIL to call up my office manager and tell him that I am sick and ask for permission to take leave !

I did not know how to react for that !!! I tried explaining to her that if I could take leave, I could call in sick myself but it was absolutely necessary for me to go. She did not believe that FIL could not call up and just like that talk to IT managers.

 

One funny moment with MIL was when I went to India. MIL,FIL and BIL visited me at my parents house. MIL always used to complain about her health, FIL's health, her mom's health, her sister's health, her BIL's health, pretty much all her blood relatives health. Even a cold is emergency room visit types for her, exaggerate so much.

That day she started telling how she was in kitchen and her poor mom cutting vegs and she cut her fingers and there was blood everywhere in the kitchen and how eveyrone was traumatized as she was old to lose blood, blah blah blah... My mom was so concerned and asking did you go, see the doctor. By that time, BIL came into the dining room (where all ladies were sitting) and asked his mom, "what are you talking about", MIL told abt that trauma. He casually said "Oh it was nothing, just a little streek and she didnt even needed a bandaid." Everybody turned to look at my MIL's face, it was RED with rage over BIL. After they left, we all had a good laugh and felt bad for BIL, who would get nice scoldings!

 

Precious thread this is!!

Now, my turn. And I promise I am not making this up.

The first time my ILs visited the UK, I had taken them to a castle. While on the tour of the castle, we came to a long room in which had one large window on the short side alone => the room was rather dark. My MIL's english isn't very good, yet she made an attempt to read one of the plaques there giving details about the room.
She turned around to me and this conversation happened:
MIL: "Wow! This room is 500 years old"
Me: nod
MIL: "Some king called Henry built it"( The Eighth)
Me: Another nod.
MIL: "This must have been where they all watched movies"!!
Me: "What?!?!??"
MIL explains: "See how dark the room is? What else could they have used it for?"

Then she moved along to the next room. Till date I'm trying to figure out whether she suddenly developed a sense of humour those 30 seconds or she genuinely believed Henry VIII and his courtiers watched movies in that huge room 500 years ago!

 

Oh! Another one. When my MIL stayed with us, I wouldn't let her come near my kitchen. Maximum I let her do was sit at the table and chop veggies. Whenever she tried to criticize my cooking, I used to politely point to her usual spot in the living room and say "Please sit there. I'll take care of things here."

One day as my SIL (DH's sis) was also visiting, I'd prepared several of her favourite dishes early in the morning before going to pick her up. As I was leaving I saw MIL in the kitchen and noticed she was tasting each dish. Earlier in my marriage she has deliberately sabotaged my cooking by adding extra salt etc. so I loudly asked "Haven't they all come out just the way she likes them?" Startled she replied "Yes. Yes." Then, she regained her composure, points to two of the dishes and says, "You ought to have made this (dish 1) in this pan(pan 2) and this(dish 2) in this pan(pan 1)"!!

To this day it amuses me how quickly she thought up that criticism!

 

This one is not really funny, and is more about double standards....We were once chatting and MIL tells me that how my co-sister-in-law and her older son's wife, who has two daughters, should try for a third child because she is a stay at home mom, when I asked her what if it turns out to be a girl again she replied "How will they know if they don't try...anyways she is at home only so she can have three kids, I had three kids." A few days later I heard her advising my SIL, who has only 1 daughter, "Don't even thinking of going for a second one, it is too much work - how will you manage, with two kids....You will get no break etc, etc..." When I confronted her about it she said "Well my daughter is a working woman so it is not feasible for her to have a second child and she lives abroad, so having a nanny or help is difficult but the older DIL is in India, and does not work!" Double Standards!

 

Even though I find it ridiculous that mils think its okay for them to poke into private matters, this particular example is not really double standards....

Managing 2 children is much more doable for a stay-at-home mom in India than a working mom abroad.

 

I agree.. I din't find any double standards here.. its just her logic which she expressed... thats it..

However, I agree it is none of her business tell who should have how many kids....

 

Well I think MILs feel that they have God given right to interfere as to how many kids her DS and DIL should have and even try to decide the kid's gender! It's their typical controlling mentality which is nothing but ridiculous!

 

I agree that indeed it is easy for a stay-at-home mom in India to take care of children than a working mom abroad, but for that reason should she keep having children? Moreover if she lives with annoying in-laws day in and day out and has to take care of them, she does not really have much of a life.
However, what irks me is the assumption that a stay at home mom in India, should keep producing children till she has a son. What if she does not want to have a third child, what if she wants to go back to school or just wants to do something for herself. Should she keep having children, because she is in India and she is a housewife - I am sorry I disagree, because I think every woman should have the choice to decide whether or not she wants to have a children. I wonder if the daughter was in India, a stay at home mom with two daughters and the dil was in the US - would the advice have been the same, the little that I know my Mil - I don't think so.