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Almost everything bothers me when my parents visit. (DH doesnt mind) We prefer to visit them!

When my ILs visit it messes up our whole schedule. They don't like to visit when the babies are napping, but naps are so variable these days that I really can't predict when they'll be awake or not. So inevitably they come over, the babies start to get tired, I try to take them to do nap routine and I get the same thing over and over "oh she's not tired, she just wants grandpa to walk around with her" or "I don't think it's naptime, maybe he needs a diaper change." Ends in a meltdown every time because we let them stay up, they get over tired, fight the nap then my ILs come upstairs to say "see they want to visit with us, not sleep!" Same people that used to regularly walk in and take my napping baby out of the swing or pack n play. Woke them up every time!

My in-laws are just generally high maintenance and picky, and like to visit when they want to, not when it's convenient for us.

They arrived the day after we moved into our house, while DH was on night shift and came knocking at my bedroom door at 11pm to advise that they like to read before bed and the lighting in the spare room is too harsh, and wanted me to dig up a 40W lightbulb and change it out for the 60W that was left in the overhead fixture by the previous owners.

And they never like to make plans for anything. I speak to them the week prior to their visit to confirm that they're arriving at 7pm, and we'll hold off dinner and it will be ready when they arrive, and have them approve the menu because they're always on some sort of diet with specific needs. They arrive at 7:30, and tell us they stopped for dinner on the way. If they say they'll eat before they arrive, they show up hungry. Last time I offered them no less than 20 options after they showed up hungry and none were acceptable.

Everything. I probably need to work on that. It's just that I can't bring myself to forget that they threatened to disinherit DH when we wanted to buy a house she didn't like because there was no room there for them to come live with us. Sigh.

@macintosh: those words perfectly describe my MIL.. ugh I'm sorry to write that here, I'm sure this is supposed to be a more light-hearted thread! So on the bright side: FIL is pretty great with DS but I do dislike the way she picks at her food!

My MIL doesn't do silence. If there is a lull in conversation, she will fill it with anything. Usually gossip. Or annoying questions. She baby-talks to D, which makes me absolutely insane. And my FIL is the most pessimistic, negative person I've ever met. According to him, nothing has ever or will ever go his way. He rarely has anything nice to say about anyone. I dread the day that D starts playing sports, because all he does with his other grandkids is criticize them. Ugh.

@keepcalmcarrie: oh my god yes! Our MILs sound very similar. It's like she does it out of love but it's never ever about anything important ever (sometimes it's things that are none of her business) but she just can't let it go. Her mom is the same way.

What is up with mother in laws asking a 1000 questions!? Mine does that, and it drives us insane. Maybe they feel insecure about their role so they feel the need to fill the silence?

@keepcalmcarrie: OMG the worrying!!

@raintreebee: @Mrs. Sunshine: my MIL is similar too and if she doesn't have questions she fills it with tons of details about nonsense that I really could care about. DH doesn't care about mindless conversation so she'll call me 5x more than she calls DH but I think also it's cuz she never had a daughter and has hopes to become bff with me (oh dear..).

@BabyBoecksMom: LOL! Ditto.

When they visit us they only stay for like an hour or two

In general, my inlaws are very nice and helpful. However, my MIL gets on my nerves when it comes to food/beverages. She is super health conscious, and is always commenting on the nasty additives in food, need for everything to be organic, plastic or foil touching food, etc. One time she made a comment because I steamed broccoli in the microwave...something along the lines of, "Well, I always steam my broccoli on the stove to retain the most nutrients, but you have a lot going on, I know it's not possible to always do everything the best way." When I had to supplement with formula for a bit (7 months pp), she made endless comments about how nasty formula was.

They came to visit on Halloween and I knew she was going to be a huge pain about it. Sure enough, she gave every trick-or-treater like 5 pieces of candy, because, "Nobody in this house needs candy... the sooner it's out of the house the better." My FIL protested that we would run out of candy before 8pm, and she said, "We just need it gone, we'll turn out the lights." My LO wanted a piece of candy after TOTing and my MIL about died when I shared a Milky Way with her. Granted it was a snack size one, so about one large bite. Later, when LO was fighting going to bed (probably because of all the excitement/over-stimulation/in-laws staying with us), she insisted it was because of that bite of candy. "Well, when you think of all the junk she ate..." I said, "She just had one bite of the Milky Way and 2 animal crackers." My MIL said, "Well, candy can do that to you, it does it to me." I was so ready for them to go from that standpoint!

I took LO to the party last night after they left and let LO have way too much candy. I was totally rebelling!

We are going to my inlaws house for Thanksgiving and I am dreading the meal. My MIL is vegetarian/pescatarian, so she usually makes fish, veggie (no salt, no butter), salad, mashed cauliflower, etc. Sometimes she will buy some turkey breast from the deli for those of us that "have to have turkey" on TG. lol!

My MIL is also negative in general. Makes all kinds of negative comments about the weather, my DH's health, etc.

But otherwise they are good...I really shouldn't complain so much.

@twodoghouse: omg yes. This routine drives. me. nuts. I my mom and 99% of what she does related to LO I love and is great-- but she never put me or my brother down for naps (we "just napped whenever we were tired!") and she doesn't really understand the putting down for naps/nap schedule/overtired babies are bad thing. And I feel like there is constant doubt when I say LO is tired. She tells me she's not tired just bored. But then I let her stay up and then she's a bear to get down. And then if nap fails due to over tiredness its "she just didn't want to sleep!" gah. And I think she gets annoyed just how much my LO sleeps during the day. And it is unfortunate because it makes planning impossible and visits challenging when ppl want to see the baby. But there is really nothing I can do about it. If I want a happy baby who sleeps well at night, I need to follow HER schedule which is very restrictive and requires a lot of sleep.

The only thing that super bugs me about my MIL is whenever ds2 does something totally normal for a baby to do & she immediately goes "oh SO was exactly like that too!"

Uh, pretty sure 99% of all babies do that & good god, there's half me in there too you know. I wasn't just an incubator for your precious grandson >_<

Referring to our home as my husband's as if he bought it and I just live there.

Asking about "his house" as if he runs it and then gets irritated when he has to defer to me for answers.

@78H2O: That is insane and so obnoxious! I hate the whole, they must be acting crazy because they had one bite of candy, not because our visit is disrupting everything

My MIL is great, but she's crazy about her hair. She spends hours styling it and then complains about how bad it looks. After two weeks, I am done hearing about it.