Clean House/Etiquette - Vent (Sorry Long)

[MrsMB]

My Mom decided to have 15 family members over to their house for takeout. I know some people would hold their nose up at that, but we had a blast. We had never done anything like that...had always gone out to a restaurant for Mother's Day or had someone cook. It was fun. That weekend my parents spent time cleaning the house to get ready for the party. Mom even stayed home for some last minute sprucing.

When everyone started arriving, SIL comes in to set out her dishes (she decided to bake dessert for our takeout fun). Upon going to set out some plates, she very loudly (thank goodness Mom was in the other room) says, "Ugh, someone could have at least gotten the lint brush over here! I'm not sitting there." Apparently, one of the cats had gotten up on the bar-stool at some point that morning and shed. My brother and I awkwardly fumble for the lint brush. He went and cleaned it up for her.

#1 - I know for a FACT, my brother did most of the daily cleaning the years she was a stay-at-home wife, the time after she became pregnant, and then after she had their first. Just recently, she decided to pick up the cleaning.

#2 - Correct me if I'm terribly wrong, but isn't that inappropriate? I wouldn't have dared to be so verbal. If I saw something that bothered me that much, I would have sat elsewhere....or just quickly wiped it off. I know they had cleaned the house that weekend. If they missed something, who cares?!

Update: Corrected my spelling of etiquette

[mrs.jacinthe]

Yes, that's rude. Like, BEYOND rude. I'd have handed her the lint brush and said "oh look! Now someone's gotten the lint brush. Do you need me to get the trash can too or will you be able to get that on your own?"

[tarheels]

Eh, it doesn't seem that big of a deal to me. MIL's house is continuously pretty dirty in the "I live in the country and my backyard is cotton fields and I have six dogs" sort of way. There are lots of surfaces DH and I won't sit on. When MIL's not around, we'll totally talk about how dirty the upholstery is.

[MrsMB]

May 13, 2013 12:29:20 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Yes, that's rude. Like, BEYOND rude. I'd have handed her the lint brush and said "oh look! Now someone's gotten the lint brush. Do you need me to get the trash can too or will you be able to get that on your own?"

Thank you.

I'm assuming my parents were supposed to follow their cat around just in CASE it shed somewhere after they had dusted? Ridiculous.

She was over there to eat food...that's how I look at it. We were guests. Granted family...but guests. My parents would have been appalled to hear me talk like that at someone's house.

[thewop]

Yep. Totally bitchy. It's one thing to say "Hey, can I get a lint bruch over here?" and take care of it yourself, but to pretty much announce those words is pretty shitty regardless of where you are, family or not.

[MrsMB]

Thanks Hope this wasn't too grammatically incorrect...

[Marmee]

So rude! She should have asked for one in private. My MIL is not a housekeeper & has lots of animals. I have asked H to sneak me a sponge & cleaner so icould scrub the tub when we stayed there with a baby (we needed to use it). I never said a word to MIL much less announced it to the world. Your SIL was way out of line IMO. As a guest it's not your job to critique.

[Deleted]

Yeah. That's weird.
Since it was a close family member's house I'd have just grabbed a brush and taken care of it myself.
Or left it. It's only cat fur. I'd have lived. And I don't "do" housepets at all.

[april37]

That was beyond rude. I'm going to assume they don't have pets and aren't aware that you can't control pet hair. I can't sit anywhere at my parents or sisters house without being covered in pet hair and I would never dream of saying that to them.

[bunnymendelbaum]

I feel like this is one of those "I can talk shit about my mom, but don't you dare talk shit about my mom" situations. And not that there is anything wrong with that. SIL needs to know her boundaries.