We are now roughly two weeks in China and a lot has happened. The main part was that we were for nearly a week on a city tour with a tourist group. Though I have tons to say about this trip alone due to so many reasons I only have the madness of my mother-in-law right now on my mind.
As I have mentioned far too often is that she is a very strange person who is doing weird stuff non-stop. Besides that she is also a very unreasonable person who believes that everything she is doing is right and everyone else is wrong. No matter how clear it is for a normal person that she has done something wrong she is still able to twist the reality and comes up with all kind of explanation on why she is right. Even my father, who cannot understand a word from her, is frustrated and annoyed after this short time. To use his words “she is the devil in human form”.
I know I know I should not force her madness upon you my dear readers but I can’t help it. So I am very sorry but now I start with just a couple of things we had to endure. You know when you are sitting in a long distance bus but the seating space is just too small? In this situation you are always happy when the person in front of you wont put there seat back. Now we were on such a bus with even less space than usual. In fact my dad and I couldn’t even sit in the normal seats and got the front row with slightly more legroom. It was so small that the average Chinese elderly tourist group male had problems sitting there. Everyone, really everyone kept there seats straight except on particular woman. The shouting started just half hour into the journey and I knew immediately who was involved. MIL and the rest of the tour group had a shouting battle as MIL appearently tried to put the seat back even though the knees of the person behind her were in the way. This whole thing was resolved after the tour guide joined the fight but me and my dad tried to pretend for the rest of the time that we didn’t know that woman. You would think that she saw her mistake and learned from it but no. To this day it makes my wife nearly cry as MIL doesn’t see what she did wrong and according to her it is her good right to put the seat back, no matter if the person is in pain behind her or not. She even says that she would let anyone putting the seat back even in case she would be the person crushed. My wife just said “you would scream immediately and kill the person”…
The other thing is her attitude when it comes to phone calls. It happened now multiple times that my wife called her mother to explain where we would meet in the city or similar things. This is all fine but MIL tends to hang up in the middle of the conversation and blaming then FIL for not telling her where to go or when. The thing is that with their phones there is not this usual “hanging up sound” so my wife never knows when her mother is hanging up. When asking why she is doing it MIL just responds with “why shouldn’t I hang up, you can just call again and ask if I got everything”. Last but not least it comes to eating. At one restaurant they had a chicken dish which was really spicy even for my wife. During the whole dinner MIL asked my wife why she is not serving him this chicken, really the whole dinner. She just does not comprehend such things at all no matter how often you explain it. Can you even imagine how frustrating such behavior is?
Do you know anyone who is as crazy as my mother-in-law?
Crazy Chinese Family 
Is your wife as frustrated as you?
She is even more frustrated as she understands everything that crazy woman says and to make matters worst: she is the daughter of the devil 😀
HAHA. MIL sounds horrible. But it also sounds like complete culture clash, though…. this is in China….
Indeed it is. Well we both survive somehow and good thing for the blog is that there Will be always stories to write about.( btw this was my first blog post written on a tablet and it was a co plate nightmare)
Wow, the more I read your posts the more I am convinced that she is not just hilariously crazy but an actual crazy(mad) person!
Hmm I don’t think it’s because of culture clash if your wife is also equally or more frustrated. I can only imagine your FIL. Well luckily you don’t have to live with her, at least not most of the year :p
I hope you’re having a nice holiday in China with your family besides the usual MIL tantrums!
Indeed she is a mad person, too mad even to play in mad max 😀
I am really happy that I don’t have to have her near me for most of the year and even my wife is glad once she is back ineurope !
OMG, yes, it makes me crazy that no matter how many times I explain something to my in-laws, they simply DO NOT HEAR me if anything I say contradicts their world view.
Doesn’t matter whether it’s using birth control or hating onions. It’s all a blank stare and “does not compute” response.
I/ we know just too well how you feel. This “do not compute” look I just know too well as I see it currently again every single day dozens of times!
Oh my! Looks like you’re having a hard time with MIL in China, but it’s such fun to read:) Lookslike the weather is wonderful over there, and your wife looks so beautiful. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Thank you so much, the weather has been indeed wonderful here except during our city tour as it was raining non stop then.
We shall survive MIL and we are currently figuring out a way to make father in laws life easier by buying him car to do the Chinese version of Uber and thus escaping MILs madness
She is back at it again. It is good that you and your father were seated in the front with extra leg room, so you didn’t need to deal with the drama going on behind you.
And I pity you as you have three months of madness to look forward to this summer!! 🙂
I was really happy about that seating placement in the bus. Anywhere near her would have been too embarrassing.
Three months…I feel abit sick thinking about it but no can do as we need her in Germany to help with Nathan (we are too busy with our business)
Do never feel bad for letting your readers in on MILs craziness. Especially with such frustrations it’s important to just let it out 😉
I think I would go crazy if someone said something like “you can just call me again and check”… I mean, just … Why??
Hang in there and I am looking forward to more stories from China 🙂
I will hang in there as these stories are also a great way to get off some steam. I think I would have gone insane already without this blog !
Sounds like an awful tour bus ride. And being stuck in there for hours, uch!
Well, it was terrible…the longest ride was five hours at once and 10hours within a day. I will never ever go with such tourist tours again as this one was even advertised as being “premium class” and also cost way too much co pared to what we got
If these three stories of MIL are anything to go by, I wonder how the rest of the trip is like with her… I will wait and I’m sure there’ll be another incredulous story with her in it that left people shaking their heads.
If I was in that small bus and MIL was in front of me and reclined the seat, I would stand up and push the seat forwards and see if she likes it 😀 I don’t think anyone can be as crazy as your MIL. Don’t tell her that, she might be quite proud of that mantle and title.
By the way, why is Nathan looking so cross in that photo?
It was Nathan meeting is expanded family the first time last year, he want happy at all 🙂
The man behind her actually pushed the seat back and then the shouting erupted. It is just insane with her as she never understands what we tell her/ common sense
Oh f**k! I super duper hate that bus situation if I am on the receiving end of your MIL antics. I’ll shove my leg into her seat to shake her and make her uncomfortable just to get back at her!
Okay, that itself is hardly a civilized method of communication by all means if I do say so myself.
There ain’t anything civilized about that woman so your method would be also the one I would chose in that case 🙂
Your MIL sounds like a special nutcase, but I have to say I am surprised no one else tried to recline the seat in the bus. I often think that people here don’t take other people’s feelings into consideration, like, ever. They think it is their right to recline the seat (or anything else) and they just do it. The same for changing lanes without looking if someone is behind and of course without using the signal lights, and the same for leaving any place full of trash because they don’t care if anyone else has to use that place later.
I know I know, too often I get the feeling here that people just don’t care at all about others as in “i am the only one that counts in this world “
“I know I know I should not force her madness upon you my dear readers but I can’t help it.” Hahahahhahhahaa.
So, the seat back thingy. Yeaaahhhhh. When my b/f and I flew to Phnom Penh, there was this guy who put his seat back even during takeoff and landing. And we were in a dingy thing and yes, his head was practically in my b/f’s lap so finally, my b/f slapped the seat in frustration.The guy put his seat up and avoided eye contact when we left the plane.
I can only imagine how bad it was on that tiny bus.
Stay strong, my friend, stay strong.
Yeah that bus was really tiny, I mean even the average Chinese got problems sitting there, wonder who developed such tin can!
Some people are just so selfish when being at such places as they don’t care at all about others around them
Very true. They are on Captain Me Planet 😛
Was she always like this? Did your wife remember her mother differently when she was younger? Or maybe she was raised by some other adults (terrible me).
As for her hanging up on her own daughter, that can be actually hurtful to your wife at times.
Maybe she should phone and leave an email (possible) where to meet up. Don’t phone back. But tell FIL first this graceful way that communication is 2 way street.
It’ll take probably a few yrs. 🙂
She has always been like that and it is not only hanging up on her own daughter…it is on everyone, she did so even when applying for visa an calling the embassy in Beijing.
No one actually ever calls back to check what she actually heard so I wonder how this all worked over all these years
If this habit/behavior continues, it will be not pleasant when she becomes older and more weak/needs help. She will increasingily push others away from her…and she may not even realize it.
(I’m not far from her age by the way. So I am making comments by imagining if I met someone like her in person.)
My wife wonders if the current situation can become any worse. The biggest problem is that she never realize that it is often ring what she does/ how she behaves. In one month she will be with us in Germany for three months again, let’s see what my wife manages during that time
I’m assuming she has no idea this blog exists? Wouldn’t want retaliation from a crazy woman like that… The last story was about feeding the spicy chicken to Nathan? Did I understand correctly? Good luck dealing with your MIL the rest of your trip.
She doesn’t know about the blog 😛
The spicy chicken she wanted to give to me and my dad…but anyways she has given Nathan more than just once some very spicy food and just laughing how he starts crying then (that woman. Ain’t got empathy or common sense)
That’s awful. How do you survive those 3 months every year?
I actually dont know how I survive them, I think it has to do with playing braindead…
😂😂😂
Dear me! You and your wife esp your wife are so patient with the MIL.
If I were the passenger, I would have done what the Real Gunners would have done. Not very British but somehow it has to be done.
Enjoy the rest of the trip and the food. Good to hear you are out and about.
Indeed everyone is waiting that she does this kind of thing to the wrong person and actually faces the consequences. However I got the feeling even that wouldn’t teach her!
This sounds all too familiar. xD Won’t point my fingers at anyone *cough cough* or I’d be slayed. D:
Yeah I am just happy that my mother in law doesnt know about this blog..
Thumbs up for you! My family knows about mine. But never really reads it. Especially since it’s all in English…
Your MIL must be especially hard to be with when you’re traveling. You’re together all day long, sharing small spaces and trying to coordinate your activities. It’s the time when you need everyone to be considerate.
She is a very special character. Though we love her it is still very hard to ‘endure’ her sometimes. The trip was certainly a challenge not only for us but also for the rest of the tourist group
My goodness she really is something else! My MIL can be crazy too but not to this level, perhaps you should award her a prize Devil MIL?
I was thinking about something like that already and I have the weird feeling that she would feel honored by it!
Really!! That’s extraordinary! Ha Ha… well at least she realises what’s she’s like!