For a long long time I did not write any stories about my dear mother-in-law or the rest of the crazy bunch. Sure I did mention some of it in the post “Three Months Survived” but that was more or less just the basic stuff you might expect anyways from her. It is not that nothing happened all the time but I just did not feel like writing about it. I can’t say whether is was due to the fact that it all is so ridiculous or that I might become just a lazy blogger.
You all have read over the past years that my mother-in-law is a bit unique. She has her own view towards how the world functions, she is always right about everything and she brings chaos wherever she goes. Guess how it is to have such person also being responsible for some of the distribution process of our business activities in China. Yes you read it right, SHE is responsible and as you might imagine it is not going really smooth. To describe her tasks in a short and simple way: She receives boxes from us in which different products are already sorted in a way that she just needs to put them into a new smaller box and sends them to the customer according to the instructions given by my wife.
There is really no way anything could wrong, am I right? I mean it is all sorted already and never anything went wrong when FIL was still doing it (he started working again this August so he can not do it any longer). I guess both my wife and I were just too positive and spoiled with the great work FIL was pulling off. There is currently really no week without at least two things going horribly wrong when MIL is doing the work. Remember everything is already sorted in those boxes we send to China and all she has to do is follow the instructions my wife sends her via WeChat about who receives what products and what little gifts to pack. I don’t even know where to start describing this whole disaster which brings my wife near insanity. I will give you only few examples which I can handle right now as thinking too much might give me another migraine attack.
So how can dear crazy MIL do anything wrong? Oh that is so easy with her! Remember I just mentioned that she simply needs to follow the few instructions my wife sends her via WeChat such as which of the pre-packed products belong to which customer and the address. Nearly every single time it happens that some products end up at the wrong person as she never really reads the entire instructions. To make it worse she even has the nerve to tell my wife that she didn’t tell her good enough and it does not help that my wife even resends the same message again to show that everything was explained. Of course then MIL just blames her husband, even when he wasn’t around because it can never be her fault.
Another classic is that she just takes stuff out of the sorted products and gives them to some other people. Yes, she just takes out some items and gives them to others not even seeing any problem that might cause for us when the customer is missing here and there some bought stuff. Her excuses are usually “No no, it was not with the other things, it was just alone there so I thought it is not meant for anyone”, or “I gave it to X and Y so they can try it out, they might buy them also later”. With these fine ideas she has made my wife always so happy. Whenever I see this kind of disbelief in my wifes eyes I know that it has to do with her mother. That woman has a real competence in driving other people insane.
Last but not least of her showing real competence is that she does not even send some of the boxes, just keeps them at home. Then it is either the customer complaining after a while that nothing has arrived or actually FIL asking my wife why so many boxes are still at their home. When asking dear MIL why she hasn’t sent the boxes it is either “You didn’t tell me where it should go”, or “I didn’t realize that there are some boxes here”, or even “You stupid father has been hiding them!”. In the end it is always either the fault of FIL or because my wife didn’t tell her what to do. It is just amazing to see what she is messing up all the time with this. We really would love FIL doing MIL’s job again but he started working full-time because “I can’t stand being whole day with your mother”. We know what he means so we can’t say anything about him working again at some company.
Do you know a person who can mess up pretty much everything?
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Sounds like your FIL is really a patient man. Bless his heart !
OMG. It’s maddening, isn’t it? It’s the way I feel when I watch Donald Trump in debates, trying to gaslight the American public by saying he never said global warming was a hoax, or that Russia should hack the State Department, while we have video of him saying those exact things. He just lies, like a used car salesman.
Sorry. Didn’t mean to compare your MIL to Trump. I am sure she is much nicer and never molested women. The election is getting to me!
Compared to trump she is like a little angel but without him existing she would easily take the number one spot of insane people
After Trump’s staff and family, perhaps.
I’m sorry that this problem is complicated because it is involving your business. Yes, FIL sounded like a real gem and gentleman (to put up with his wife).
He certainly managed it now for about thirty years to live with her, sure he lost some hairs and even developed a cleaning OCD but he still manages somehow.
Oh dear. I am so sorry to hear about that and it must not be good for the business. It sounds that she cannot follow anything, or maybe she has her own language in her head, lol. Fair enough to FIL wanting to go back to work. I wonder what happens if MIL for a job…
Good luck with your business. Maybe it is better getting a friend or another relative in China to help out or else it will roll into a bigger mess 😦
She really has her own language it seems. My wife suggested that her mother should go working instead of FIL but she was just like “I was a model for 20 years that was Enough work, no one ever worked as hard as I “, well she once told she had to take pictures and stuff like three days a week each time for 5 hours maximum…real hard work -_-
We were thinking of getting another relative into the work but the problem is that they are all from MIL’s side of the family and they all are kind of…insane 😀
Maybe there are photos of MIL as a model somewhere out there…maybe even on the internet. You never know. Maybe she was a high in demand model -__-
Maybe get someone from FIL side of the family, or one of your wife’s friends to help out. It already is insane enough already for you, lol.
Nah, there ain’t any pictures of her online as she stopped before internet became a thing in China.
The thing with FIL’s family is that they don’t really talk with each other…none of that side of the family were even in our Chinese wedding as he didnt want to contact them 😮
OMG what a mess. I am not sure how your wife, your FIL and you mange to work with her. All the best.
It certainly is not always easy 😉
Just today MIL asked 9 times if that customer really just wants one cream…9 times!!
Good luck with your business, hope it won’t affect much.
We will deal with it somehow, in worst case I just need to be drunk enough to surive it…okay bad idea, don’t think I would be so productive while drunk though it would make MIL’s crazyness more endurable
I think you should hire some friend of your wife still in China to send the boxes! Your MIL will spoil everything, hahaha
My wife does not really trusts her friends competences either. One of the did a bachelor in English literature and can’t even speak really any english, another two are just hunting rich guys and the others are all busy with their own work 😛
Oh god, this is a complicated situation! I can only praise your FIL for putting up with her all these years.. how is it even possible with such an insane person?! Surely she might have some good sides? I am at loss of words about her behavior regarding posting the packages, as it sounds really simple and straightforward. Just post them according to what your daughter says.. and she cannot even do that? 😦 I hope you will find a solution for it soon! Must be so frustrating for both your FIL and daughter, and of course you!
I am just thinking back when I was first time in China 2011 and some crazy stuff was going on. I was asking my wife what her dad said about it “Well daughter, your mother has just fishes in her head, don’t excpect anything intelligent, she is crazy” 😀
Let’s see how this whole thing will go on. In worst case we just have hire somehow a reliable person there…
Good..you’re still sane up to this timeTimo! 🙂 Reading about MIL brought me laughs as well as amazement how crazy you described her.She is indeed unique.
Competent enough to brought chaos to you and your family.
But guess what–the crazier, the merrier!
Goodluck for better days…
Each day without having contact with them is a merry day (at least right now). The peace is really wonderful but we know that either tomorrow or the day after some box will arrive again at home and the terror shall start