My MIL is a relatively intelligent woman, and very sweet, but boy-howdy, does she worry about some bizarro stuff!
For example, this past Sunday around noon, she called to ask if our daughter (who lives in Orlando) was safe after the shooting. OK, on one hand, I can kind of understand, but she knows where our daughter lives (more than 10 miles from downtown) and even tho she has some gay friends, she doesn’t go clubbing. But most of all, how can my MIL think that if something horrible happened to their only granddaughter, we wouldn’t call??
This is the same woman who, when said daughter and some friends were doing a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas, called us to say that there was a hurricane developing (off South America) and should we call our daughter to tell her. Um, why? So she can go to the captain and say “My grandma wanted me to tell you that there’s a hurricane out there!!!”
Going even farther back, when Florida first started their lottery, my MIL was concerned about buying a ticket because what if she won and someone kidnapped our daughter and held her for ransom to get her winnings? Honest-to-goodness, that was a huge worry on her mind!
Has anyone else encountered such a, um, unique outlook on life? Do you live with a worrier? Are you a worrier? Have you any tales of worries weirder than those I’ve shared?
My MIL is a pathological worrier. There’s the usual stuff you’d expect like making sure our son is wearing a coat while playing when it’s ‘cold’ outside (ie. ~65). But yeah, if she sees something on tv about, says, the zika virus she’ll want to spray everyone down with DEET before walking outside for any length of time. If anyone in our house has a cold she’ll kindly offer to drop off some chicken noodle soup, but when she drops off the pot she’ll ring the doorbell and stand 10 feet back. She once refused to get into a car to ride about 2 miles because the car was one safety belt short for the number of passengers (others offered to ride without a belt but she didn’t want to “place anyone’s life in peril on her account”).
Basically, there’s no such thing as an acceptable risk to her. At gatherings it seems her conversation is more or less confined to expressing fears; a change of topic means talking about different fears. Kinda tragic, really.
Wait, if my mom is both of these MILs… then we’re all related!
Seriously, I’ve been telling my mom she’s “too young to be an old lady” and that usually quiets her down for a bit. But it’s got to be tough living in a state of constant vigilance like that.
If mom starts a sentence with “I just happened to be reading this article…” FLEE! Because ‘this article’ will be a sensationalistic warning against what you are doing at that very moment.
Last instance of that was when the family was all out to eat for Mother’s Day. Beautiful brunch, but halfway through, mom starts telling the whole table about ‘this article’ detailing all the horrid germs on restaurant silverware ("and if it ever touched the table, well…").
Like the OP’s hurricane, what are we supposed when she tells us this? Demand new forks from the kitchen, and make the staff bleach them first?
My wife is that way; no matter what the situation, she can find something to worry about it.
I’m reminded about a line from the great Jean Kerr: “He can find something to worry about when the child is in the middle of a perfectly clean, perfectly clear, 9 x 12 rug.”
I can so relate to this. If I could work my will I would prohibit my MIL from reading any articles of any sort, or watching any news.
I’m waiting for the frantic phone call to my wife…I just got off the phone with your cousins and they are PLANNING TO GO DANCING AT A CLUB DOWNTOWN!!!:eek: DON’T THEY WATCH THE NEWS? 50 PEOPLE JUST GOT SHOT AT A CLUB! YOU’VE GOT TO CALL YOUR COUSINS UP AND TALK SOME SENSE INTO THEM. IT’S NOT WORTH THEM DYING FOR JUST TO GO DANCING…
We live a bit more than an hour from Washington, DC. We’re more than 2 hours from Baltimore. But any time anything horrific happens in either of those cities, we can expect a call to make sure that the riots/fires/floods/plagues of locusts aren’t affecting us. What adds to the craziness is that my inlaws have visited us many times and we’ve driven them from our place to DC and to Baltimore, so they know how remote we are from either city.
When the Admiral Duncan pub was bombed in London (another gay venue) back in the late 90s, I was out with friends from work and walked past the pub about an hour beforehand. When the bomb went off, all my colleagues were getting calls from their parents, grandparents, girlfriends, etc. Me? Nothing. Not a word from my ‘concerned’ parents.
When I called them the next day, I asked them whether they had been concerned at all. It simply hadn’t occurred to them that I would be out in Soho on a Friday night, even though I worked nearby. Quite what they thought I did do on a Friday night in my 20s, I have no idea. Stay at home sipping hot chocolate in a onesie presumably.
My wife can be a bit of a worry wart. She has a tendency to imagine the worst possible outcome of just about any situation and then fret and stew about it. I once joked that if she didn’t have anything to worry about, she’d worry about not having anything to worry about!
My mom is a super worrier. Wrings her hands over everything. Plus, she’s paranoid. What a lovely combo. My daughter has been with her boyfriend for over a year, yet my mom reminds her at least once a month to keep an eye on whatever she drinks around him, since “He could slip something in it and you wouldn’t know”. If I happen to be downstairs, but the main floor windows are open and she comes over, I receive a lecture about break ins. I hate riding with her - if a kid is playing in their yard, she will slam her brakes on. Even if the kid is a half block away.
Yesterday she requested a listing of all of my doctors, their office locations, and phone numbers. Mom, they wouldn’t release any info to you anyways. She didn’t care, she wanted all the info “just in case”.
It doesn’t help that she thinks I am broken. Because my kidneys do not work, neither does my brain or the rest of my body. A few days ago I made the mistake of telling her I was about to go mow. She was over in 15 minutes, trying to wrest the mower from me.
Bless her heart.
My mom has been like that since my dad passed away 3 years ago, only she obsesses over the worry du jour. Once it’s in her head there is no moving it out, no matter how much proof is offered that the imagined outcome is vanishingly unlikely or outright impossible.
I love my momma, but she drives me batty. Me during the course of a typical conversation with her: :dubious: :eek: :rolleyes: :smack: :smack: :smack:
Hi, I’m ivylass and I think up scenarios to worry about them.
I really hate it. I’d love not to wake up in the middle of night worrying over some dumb thing. Most of it is stressing over my children. I’ve gotten better, but I still have my moments.
:dubious: :eek: :rolleyes: :smack: :smack: :smack: