‘What’s the most annoying thing your in-laws do that they’re convinced is ‘helpful’?’ – 25 relatives who drive you up the wall

13.

‘They wrap up every tiny morsel of leftover food in tin foil. Last time I found 3 peas that had been in the baby’s mouth, a spoonful of mash and half a sausage – each in their own tiny tin foil parcel.

Not only is it not enough food to save for another meal, you also can’t see what’s in the parcels, so you have to open every single one to see what it is. We have perfectly good Tupperware.’
–Zyrrus

14.

‘They insist on cooking overly elaborate roast dinners every Sunday. It is bordering on Hyacinth Bucket levels of grandiosity. It’s nice once in a while but we feel forced into it due to the expense they seem to put in every week.

It gives them something to do and I feel harsh for not wanting another goose for my lunch but sometimes I just want something normal and not to have to sit down at a banquet fit for a 19th century Duke.’
–Suddendeath777

15.

‘My step mother is staying with us this weekend. She thinks she is being helpful by getting up at 6am, waking her dogs up, sending them in the garden to bark and unloading the dishwasher even though she doesn’t know where anything goes and breaking several glasses. She then roasted a chicken and strew it about the garden for the dogs to eat. The glasses she put away she put upside down even though we keep ours right side up and she could plainly see that .

Whole house up at 6:30am corralling dogs and putting kitchen to rights. Everyone angry.’
–redandbluebadness

16.

‘My mum will occasionally clean something if I’m in hospital (chronic illness owner here), but often causes issues in doing so – last time she hoovered my living room and sucked up a piece of parquet floor that was loose so now I just permanently have a hole in the floor.’
–Chunky_flower

17.

‘I got a couple of climbing roses and for some reason my MIL has decided to cut them right back. They are four years old now and shorter than when I got them. I never felt the need to tell her not to do this as I can’t imagine ever going to somebody else’s house and deciding to do the pruning.’
–SoccerGerk

18.

‘Filling the kids up with snacks so they’re not hungry, every single week, then rattling off all the stuff they’ve eaten for me when they drop them off, as I sit there fuming knowing they’re not going to eat a bit of the dinner I’ve just made them from scratch. We just do frozen dinners on those nights now.’
–Jenpot

19.

‘It was my own parents but while I was in hospital having my child they bought some random second hand furniture and rearranged my hallway putting it in there and getting rid of my nice furniture. Apparently the monk’s bench they got me ‘fit perfectly’ and would passive aggressively ‘help keep me tidy’.’
–thecatwhisker

20.

‘My parents stay with us for a month at a time (we live overseas). My mother insists on taking the washing in the SECOND it is dry. She will go out repeatedly to check it’s dry. But she doesn’t put it away, just leaves it on a pile on the sofa so now I have to fold it and put it away just to sit down! I’ve asked her just to leave it but it’s like she has a compulsion. We have cleaners who come in twice a week who would bring it in, fold it and put it away if she just left it!’
–vicky_sd

21.

‘Putting things away that I’ve taken out and intend to use in the next 10 mins.’
–ben_vtr

22.

‘We keep our in-progress loo roll in the cupboard under the bathroom sink, right next to the toilet, because we have two cats, and, well, if it’s accessible, it’s a toy. My mum has been told this repeatedly, but Every Damn Time she gets out a new roll from the cat-proof box. “You ran out of loo roll, so I put a new one on top of the cistern!”

Great. Now we HAVE run out of loo roll because the one you put out has been shredded within 5 minutes.’
–sloth-in-a-box-5000

23.

‘My MIL continuously ‘gifts’ us items destined for the charity shop. They are of course either broken, filthy or so ugly I can’t even give them away for free.’
–Iammysupportsystem

24.

‘For weeks before they visit, they carefully cut out and save hundreds of snippits of the latest wit and wisdom of Rod Liddle or Clarkson or some other tw@ from the Sunday Times. Then these things are gradually brought out as rage bait, sorry… conversation starters. We find the unused ones for weeks after they’ve gone.’
–lexington_spurs

25.

‘I asked my father-in-law to water the allotment while we were on holiday. No need to do anything else, just make sure it didn’t dry out. He strimmed the wildflower patch, dug over a bed that had just had seeds sown, pruned the apple tree so hard there was barely anything left (it was in blossom, and most of the branches with blossom on were cut off), and painted my shed blue.’
–smoulderstoat

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