Journal

What’s the punishment for bigamy? Two mothers-in-law.

I was going to write more about my vacation, and childhood and interesting things. Then I returned home and so instead I need to rant about my mother-in-law. She lives round the corner from us, that's not how it's always been, she lived up in London but when she retired, decided to move down south.

So while we were away, she came and cleaned the house. You may think that might be a good thing, it isn't. If she came and cleaned the house and that was it, then it would be fine, but every single thing she cleans we then get a lecture on. I don't need to get told that we should be cleaning the windows every 6 months and all the other random crap rules that she comes up with. I would much rather pay someone to come and clean the house, a professional who wouldn't lecture us.

The thing is, it isn't just me who gets annoyed by this, my wife does as well. So she gets annoyed and the moans at me which leads to more stress. One of my issues is the idea that my mother-in-law is going through our stuff without our knowledge, in the past she's thrown stuff away that we were keeping, there is also a lot of stuff that I just don't want her seeing. I don't think that annoys my wife that much, although I know she gets annoyed by the tidying that accompanies the cleaning.

We gave my daughter a bath, as it was bath night, so I've got her in the bath and she's starting to get bored and a little upset, meanwhile my wife is searching the house trying to work out where my daughter's bath towels are which are normally kept hanging over the stair rail. That was just one of many little annoyances that we really didn't need after a day of traveling. And who knows how many more annoyances are going to turn up over the following days, along with more lectures I'm sure.

When she moved down there was a clear understanding that she wouldn't turn up at random, but apparently that doesn't cover turning up at random when we aren't in. Or checking with us what our plans are, we could have given the key to someone else if they needed a place to stay, I almost paid for a cleaning company to come and do the house while we were away, it's only due to them not covering the area that I didn't book them.

There are other things about my mother-in-law I could complain about. But I guess I should keep this short.