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Visit from Mother-in-Law

April 13th, 2015 at 04:05 am

It's been a great week with my mother-in-law here! Well, all week until today when four people living in close quarters with different cultural norms caught up with us.

We mostly spent our days down at the soccer fields for F's practices and game (she scored the only two goals our team made on Saturday, so even though we lost, she was happy).

Yesterday we went to Madrid (that's pronounced Mad-rid with an emphasis on mad, not like the city in Spain). It's a former coal-mining village, and then it was a ghost town and now it's a funky artist community. I knew that my English mother-in-law would like it; it looks like the wild west (how far from the UK can you get?) and she loves to shop. She asked F if she wanted something in every shop we went into, and F is not a shopper and really doesn't seem to want anything (except another Arsenal soccer jersey).

We had lemonades and chips and salsa at a little outdoor cafe and we treated (we've been saving up our dining out budget). We had dinner back at our favorite place near our house, and were expecting to buy that, too, but D's mum treated us! So nice!

Today was a little harder... F is pretty sick of D's mum referring to herself in the third person "Shall Grandma get you a little jacket?" F is a little sick of Grandma always talking about clothes (I think it's pretty funny actually! If you ask her how the plane trip was, she'll describe what she wore). F and I both find it hard that my mother-in-law walks really, really slowly; we walk as slowly as we can to walk with her, but it's nearly impossible. My mother is quick, quick, quick, so F isn't used to that.

Grandma wanted to come with us to the supermarket so she could buy postcards and stamps, but our supermarket doesn't sell postcards, and F needed some time alone with me. She's having a lot of anxiety about her upcoming school overnight trip and wanted to talk about it. So D took his mum to the CVS instead (where they do sell postcards, but only US stamps, not international).

While we were gone, my mother-in-law was trying to be really nice and left a little container of something called Bio-Oil for me to try. I only use unscented products, and when I saw the oil I went to close the flip top and found that it was super smelly. And in carrying it down to my desk, my very wonderful but not that steady on her feet mother in law had dripped the oil across the floor. Had to wash my hands and then picked up the container with a paper towel. Then I put baking soda on the oily spots, but I'm not sure all of the spots will come out completely (we have concrete floors and the oil was probably sitting for an hour or so).

In positive news, our shower valve survived the visit (it's a bit titchy, and always in danger of breaking if it's handled to roughly).

I'm pretty much ready for this day to be over, though.

Grandma leaves in the morning, and then I have to do her sheets and towels before she returns in a few weeks (fortnight!).

So, it was a great visit, but a lot of work, too. And I guess that's the thing about visitors...

5 Responses to “Visit from Mother-in-Law”

  1. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1428920984

    As someone who spent a weekend only a week ago with her Inlaws - I sympathise! They are hard work. It's a week later now though & I've recovered from it. And you will too! It's not even because they're inlaws, it's more because you're spending a big block of time with someone you're not used to. Hopefully you can spend some time relaxing after she's gone, you deserve it Smile

  2. ThriftoRama Says:
    1428928859

    I laughed out loud about the Arsenal jersey. My Dh is a big fan of that team and we have a whole closet full of shirts!

  3. Buendia Says:
    1428929445

    I'm pretty sure that's what we'll be buying for her birthday! She has a Cazorla shirt, and can't decide between Sanchez, Giroud or Walcott!!! Another Arsenal fan - I love it!! (Her other shirt is a Megan Klingenberg shirt - go women!)

    PS - I want some relaxing time for me, too! But first I need to wash the sheets... ugh!

  4. CB in the City Says:
    1428933086

    As a MIL myself, I understand how hard it is to "visit" your grown children and to try to somehow please an inexplicable DIL! I'm sure I've done lots of things trying to be nice, that were not welcomed as I thought they would be. Bear in mind that it comes from love -- also that you will be in her shoes someday! That said, it sounds like overall you've borne the visit with patience and kindness and appreciation, and that is so very, very important!

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1429054239

    It's fun to have company, while at the same time, it can be quite stressful - trying to accommodate someone who comes at life differently than you.

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