Oh boy. I love my ILs for the mostpart. They do drive me nuts, but that’s what family does, right? No really, I love them…except Future Brother-In-Law and his wife.
FBIL’s wife has always come across as really fake to me. Nothing she ever says sounds sincere. They live in another state, so we don’t see them a lot, but before she got pregnant, they visited frequently. I liked Future Brother-In-Law just fine, and it destroyed Fiance when his brother would leave. Then she got pregnant. That was okay, although her crazy started showing a bit more. The baby was born and we started Skyping with them every Sunday, and Fiance would chat with his brother online almost daily. FBIL’s wife randomly sends me weird Facebook messages (from her fake account–she has that one and a real one that she’s friends with FI’s ex on, but I’m not “allowed” to be on that one) that make no sense/are riddled with poor grammar, sentence fragments, and awful spelling–to the point where I can’t read them. She’s a teacher (well, she was when they moved down there and then she got laid off within months)! It’s usually something frivolous, like asking me where to buy jeans and stuff, although she did invite us to come to Ohio for her birthday because her parents were paying to bring them up (why not here, I don’t know).
They have a SEVERE time management issue. I’m the opposite–I’m always early for things–so this really, really bothers me. I think it’s incredibly rude and selfish to be chronically late to things, because it says to me, “My time is more valuable than yours.” She came up for a few months to help out with her parents’ daycare after her dad had surgery. She knows that we eat lunch with Future Mother-In-Law the same time every Sunday, but was consistently late, IF she showed up at all (and god forbid she call or answer her phone when we’d call). She’d make excuses about how it took her forever to get her and the kid ready, when she’d show up unshowered in pajamas, and bring the baby (in the wrong carseat) in from the car IN THE WINTER in just whatever pants and shirt he had on. No hat, no coat, no shoes. She’s in her mid-30s, by the way.
Future Brother-In-Law broke his phone while she was here, and refuses to buy a new one (it was a $10 tracfone!). So then he came up, and they were late for everything, and we barely saw them because they spent probably 90% of their time at her parents’. We tried to go to lunch with them once, and they were almost an HOUR late, with a full day’s notice of the time. They had no excuse except that she didn’t get in the shower until 15 minutes BEFORE they were supposed to meet us, and neither of them dressed the baby while the other was in the shower.
Now that they’re back home, we haven’t heard from them in about two months. Fiance says it hasn’t been that long, but I know we haven’t Skyped with them in over 2 months and he hasn’t talked to his brother online in almost as long. I had to search the online papers for their city to make sure that they aren’t freaking dead. We try to call the wife’s phone and it always rings to voicemail. She’s a Stay-At-Home Mom, so it’s not like she’s at work when we call. I know Future Father-In-Law emailed Future Brother-In-Law not to long ago, a pretty long, involved email, and the response he got was simply, “Hi.”
Oh, did I mention that they don’t let anyone hold the baby? Like, the baby is never out of arm’s reach of FBIL’s wife (and usually in her arms)? He’ll be 2 in December. She swatted FI’s grandmother’s hand away from the baby (and had the audacity to giggle and admonish an 82 year old great grandmother for wanting to touch the baby like she was some child); thankfully they were leaving because I almost punched her and almost everyone there was in tears after that. I ended up in FFIL’s upstairs bathroom sobbing because I was so angry with them and had a long talk with FSMIL when she came to check on me.
The best part is, Future Brother-In-Law is our Best Man. I am SO afraid that he’s not going to come though or let Fiance down.