After knowing my crazy Chinese mother-in-law for 4 years I really do believe that she must hate cars. There were just too many occasions during those years that it can not be coincidence anymore. Most of these things were just small details but they add up over time and last but not least I discovered some ‘Marks’  she had left behind in our car.

In China only my father-in-law is driving the cars. As I have written before he is a very careful person so he always wears a seatbelt even in taxis…well in case the taxi actually got seatbelts as they tend to be missing more often than not. MIL on the other hand is the exact opposite. There is nothing careful about her actions and seatbelts do not have any purpose in her world. So what makes me think that she hates cars? It all started during one of our trips to China when I asked my wife why MIL is never driving. I guessed till then that she just might not have a driving license but no, the demon somehow managed to get her hands on a license years back. My wife told me that the cars crazy MIL drove tend to end up with tons of scratches and dents. But the main cause to end her racing career was that she actually crashed a car into the city wall of Xi’an. Yes you read right THE HUGE CITY WALL with two lanes each way leading trough it wide enough that even two trucks can drive next to each other without problems!

Okay so she had some little accidents during her driving time which does not yet give any reason nor connection yet to actually answer why she might hate cars. Now we fast forward from her crash some years ago into more modern times during her first visit to Finland. Back then it already started with minor things such as not buckling up. After being told numerous time she started to do the fake buckle up or blaming the seatbelt for not working properly. I guess she let out some rage during those times on the seatbelt as this poor little thing ended up broken and had to be fixed. Also I noticed huge hand and face smudges on the window where she was sitting which resulted that I had to clean the windows every few weeks. But she didn’t end there as also the nice rear bench ended up covered in drinks, food and other trash. Sometimes I really wondered how on earth she got all the dirt into the car, perhaps she was sneaking out of the house at night with a trash bag and poured it all into the car…who knows…

The car somehow has survived already her third visit but just barely. Besides the tons of trash in the car and other unspeakable things I had to clean out after she left I found something remarkable on the rear car door she always used. The car is not the youngest anymore so some small scratches might show at the doors for example due to opening them not careful enough and hit by mistake another car. Thing is though that there was only one mark prior to her last visit. This spot was shown to me at a car paint shop which I had to visit to get some other part fixed. It wasn’t anything big so my jar just dropped on the floor when doing the standard “Get MIL’s dirt out of the car” session. The scratch on the car had multiplied about a dozen times and even showed some dents. Now when You by accident hit another car with the door you remember it at least for a while and be careful from that point onwards but not her. The damage appeared more like that when she hit the other car she tried with all her might to push that other car away with my poor baby’s door! Not just once but repeatable smashing it against cars and walls. Somehow also the area around the door handle ended up in an ocean of tiny scratches for unknown reasons.

Either she really does hate cars or she tried to exact revenge for her daughter constantly telling her to buckle up. I think I should just buy for the next three-month visit by MIL some broken down car for hundred Euros . Scratches, dents and the like would not matter anyways on such car and my baby would be safe from her madness. I believe the title “Destroyer of Cars” is rather suitable for her.

Have you ever encountered such a destructive force when it comes to cars?

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