It has been now roughly 4 weeks since my dear Chinese mother-in-law arrived here in Germany. In the beginning I mentioned that nothing bad or weird had happened thus far. You can imagine that it was an exception and that she returned to her good old self within no time. I guess it was like the jet lag affected her that she was not able to pull of any stunts the first week. So what has happened since then?
She is once again a world champion in leaving her oily handprints all over the apartment. The windows, the tv screen, the cabinets, the glass wall and door between dining room and living room, the bathroom mirror, all windows and doors of the new car, the aquarium and heck even on the tiles on the floor you can find some of them. I am not even kidding when I say that there is her facial imprint on the sun roof of the car! I surrendered long time ago in trying to clean up everything on a daily basis, now I let the madness just happen and wonder how bad it might all look like when she is leaving in two months. Over the years I wrote in a few posts about the stuff she had broken such as some bowls, the car safety belt or the toaster. Nothing major has happened yet except of a broken plate and few chipped bowls but it seems she is trying hard to scratch our glass table. Why she is trying her best? The thing is she hits her legs daily several times on that table because it is glass and I clean it making it look pretty neat. She is not the biggest fan of having a super clean glass table as according to her she can not see it and thus hits her legs. Not that she is openly scratching the table but I have seen and heard many time when she scrapped with some bowl over the surface…
Now to the weird things. She is back again being her weird self. Who broke the plate? It wasn’t her. Who ran against the glass door? It wasn’t her, and so on. Also she has a rather odd way of perceiving on what is good. For example she was urging my wife to find our lost Zwilling nailcutter because according it so much better than the old one we still have. I must add she has actually never used it. When my wife was asking her why and what is so much better about it she just replies something along these lines “The brand is good, it is expensive so of course it is better”. Same applies to everything she has never tried or used herself. If by any chance the brand is well-known it must be great just like the old Iphone 3 she has which is according to her so much better than her new Oppo F1 in every aspect. Now she is also very upset with my wife that she has never time to go shopping. You know my wife is the whole day busy with work and MIL does not compute that there is no real way around it to earn money. Besides she got a wicked fashion sense, most of her clothes will remind you of some Circus artists. Her goal is always to find something cheap, but good quality and fashionable, indeed this resulted that she never bought anything over the past years in Germany or Finland. Not anything? Okay that is not right as she once bought a jacket which she even tried on but was in the end way too small for her and bed sheets which did not fit at all either.
I could of course go on with my rambling but I will stop for now as there is just more and more coming to my mind as soon as I start writing. There will be more coming about her but not today, perhaps in another month in case I don’t go insane till then.
Will this crazyiness ever stop?
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Crazy Chinese Family 
It’s like a 5-year-old — nope, wasn’t me. Nope. Even though there’s no one else it could be.
I think a 5-year-old is easier to deal with :p
What might be going on in her head that she always thinks/ says that she did nothing wrong and is always right…
Why can’t she stand a clean glass table?
I wouldn’t be able to stand it if she left her oily hand prints all over the place..How does she pass her time when she is visiting you guys in Germany during the whole summer?
Appearently she doesn’t like clean things :p
Well she is taking care of our son most of the times or watches her tv shows on her phone (she never touches for strange reasons the tv) or takes som e walks…
I always feel bad “liking” posts about the insanity the MIL brings to your home f(^_^;)
My parents-in-law were just here for three months, followed by three weeks with my own parents, younger sister and husband.
They were all absolutely great and we had a great time. Yet I was utterly exhausted after they flew back and I was so glad to have the apartment to ourselves again.
I cannot imagine how exhausting MILs visits have to be for you and your family.
Wish you a lot of strength, patience and extra sanity to replenish what MIL costs you 😉
I feel bad for writing about it and spreading the madness around the globe! 😉
There is so much weird stuff going on nearly every day that I kind of switched my brain off once again and let it all just happen…
I love your MIL stories…must say I don’t get the oily prints all over your home!!! Good luck with the rest of the visit…long time still!!!
No idea either how she is managing to leave some hand prints all over the place. Looking around here from my computer I can see some marks on the mirror and the door…yes the door as she never uses the door handle
He he!!!
Poor you… maybe you should pray to all the gods and ask for patience and time passing fast xD
Did it already for the past years, the gods clearly didn’t listen…
I won’t be surprised if one of the legs of the glass table shatters at some point. It sounds like that table and your MIL don’t get along. A table is pretty sizable and I’m wondering how your MIL always bumps her legs into it.
I’ve never actually notice her fashion sense and the clothes she wears resembles something you see at the circus. I mean, she looks normal in all the photos you show of her…
As for whether the craziness will stop, I don’t know but I am wishing you all the best 😀
Oh no, the glass table is actually on a firm wooden base, she just hits all the time the glass table surfce all the time. Don’t ask me how though…
She pictures I upload here are the ones my wife checked beforehand/ chose the clothes . Even she is often embarrased of her mom :p
Well…at least MIL will always have an attire for a party 😀
Your wife should have a word with her mum and lean on her. Like puppies and little kids, one has to preserve.
Nah, she wont listen at all…and in case she does listen she does not understand what is wrong
It is possible she doesn’t see the edge of the glass table. That’s why I don’t want a glass edge coffee table. Does she wear glasses or contacts? Has she ever had her eyes /vision tested? She needs to…I know because I’m close to her age and I’ve had excellent eyesight until 6 yrs. ago.. still very minor glasses need compared to many others.
She got it checked out last year and doesnt need any glasses. The thing is both my parents who are respectively 75 and 71 y.o. dont have these issues even when they don’t wear their glasses. Even my wife, who is nearly as blind as a mole without her glasses, never had these issues
It. Will. Never. Stop. Ever.
Please.make.it.stop.help.
I am sorry to say but I love these posts. I can’t stop laughing. I know you are suffering but this makes your post very interesting too.
I think the brand thing might be Asian. Usually, media and advertisement led to believe that if something is branded it is absolutely the best and hence the ideas.
All the best for next two months. Can’t wait to read more about your suffering 🙂 , I mean experience.
I hope the “experiences” I will gather in the next two months won’t overwhelm me 😉
For MIL it is not just the brad, she somehow creates an imagine of something and it must be like that, no matter what.
Hahahaha this is so funny! The leaving handprints on everything is so strange… Why does she touch your TV screen? I’m so glad my Korean MIL doesn’t go around breaking things in our house, but she is a master at throwing important things away. Once she threw away my return ticket to Japan and we had to call the ferry company a few hours before to beg them to let me board. And another time, I took some things to her house in preparation for moving to Korea, and I think she threw away the cup that I made with my husband on our first date. All her children agree that she throws things away if she thinks it’s unnecessary… but the cup thing broke my heart T.T
Oh my mother-in-law is also very well in throwing away important stuff. How often she threw away some banking stuff or even once my car keys which I had to search for half day in the gigantic trash bins
I’m glad you have us to vent to 😉
You are welcome, it also helps me to survive this whole endeavour 😉
Even when house guests are not crazy it’s tiring having them around. I love having my children and grandchildren visit me. They all behave well when they’re here. But I’m always glad when they leave and I can go back to my usual routine. But they only come for a week or so at a time. Three months would be way too long.
I am always happy when my visitors leave after a day or two but with my mother-in-law it is just a neverending exhaustion.
When my friends are here I know I can rest and clean up in the evening or next day but now…oh well only two more months 🙂
Omg…in laws are so hard! Your MIL sounds like some of the ayis I know here. Good luck over the next two months!
I think my MIL is one of the prime examples of Chinese crazy Ayi’sm 😀
Big LOL!
Lol…how did her facial imprint end up on the sunroof of the car? Hahaha. I thought for sure, MIL would be one of those Asians that avoids the sun at all costs!
I must admit that I can relate to how she feels about that glass table. My husband and I had a table like that in the old apartment (it was sold furnished) and I also kept walking into it. I didn’t start scratching the table though, I just made sure we got a new one very quickly:):)
The thing is that is just her running against it non-stop. Not even Nathan is managing that or my wife when she is not wearing her glasss (blind as a mole, surprised she can see her hand in front of her…)