Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE 禄

I Dont Feel At Home At Home

I live with my in-laws so technically it's not [i]my[/i] home. Which is why I haven't felt at home in the last 2 years. 馃槬

The house is split into 2 sections- 2 smaller bedrooms and one bath for me and my fiance; and a huge master bedroom and bath for my in-laws. My in-laws have 100% use of the living room, while we all share the laundry room and kitchen. My fiance and I stay in our part of the house 99% of the time because we have completely different standards of living than the in-laws.

We are neater and much more clean than they are, and we actually train our dogs to behave indoors, while my in-laws allow their dogs to completely run their part of the house and tear up their furniture. I disinfect my bathroom and floors every day since the Covid-19 outbreak, but in my in-laws' part of the house it's like the Wild West- you enter at your own risk. 馃槵

This is unfortunate when it comes to sharing a kitchen. Cooking is one of my passions but since moving here I can't do anything except throw a bunch of stuff into a slow cooker and leave it alone til it's ready. I can't use the kitchen for real cooking because of a few reasons:

1. My mother-in-law insists on parking her ass in front of the stove to smoke her cigarettes. She does it because she thinks the stove fan will suck the smoke out so we won't smell it. She is wrong about that. 馃樂 (She has a whole ass enclosed heated smoking porch that her husband built for her but she refuses to use it because she is afraid she will miss something inside the house 馃檮) As long as she sits in front of the stove, no one else is allowed to use it.

2. I don't trust the cleanliness of the countertops. As I said earlier, MIL doesn't clean. At all. I clean it myself once a week when MIL leaves the house for her Bingo game, but unfortunately since she is usually smoking in there I can't stand to be in there long enough to clean when she is at home. 馃樀

3. Dogs. Her dogs are ALWAYS underfoot in the kitchen. You can't take a single step without stepping on a dog paw or accidentally kicking one of them. 馃槪 I love them to death but they need to be trained to stay OUT of the damned kitchen before they or someone else gets hurt!! And there is no way to put a pet gate in- it's an open floor plan.

4. The heat/humidity. 馃サ My in-laws are old, and you know how old people are: always COLD. So they keep the thermostat at around 84掳 year round. It roasts me. This is east Texas, and the humidity is almost always at 100%. So any time I try to cook in the kitchen it feels like I'm in a tropical jungle. Add the cigarette smoke, the lack of cleanliness, and the dogs, and you get a thriving environment for bacteria and mold. Not exactly a place I want to cook in. 馃あ

I am in the process of having my car fixed so I can extend my search for work. The ultimate plan is to find work, save up, and get the hell outta here asap. But now we have this damned virus and quarantine....and well, sometimes I think this is it for me, I'll never get out.

I have to stop myself from thinking that way, because if I truly allowed myself to think that I'm stuck here permanently, I just might kill myself. 馃槥 I miss living in my OWN house, where everything is clean, orderly, and my dogs are trained.
GERRI51-55, F
Ugh!! living with the in-laws---- once we lived with my brother-in-law,, which were the age of my parents----ugh, ugh, and UGH!!
Penny46-50, F
could you turn the enclosed porch into like a little makeshift kitchen for yourself? is it near the kitchen so you could use the sink? like, get one of those plug in induction burners or something maybe? maybe get an instapot or soemthing?
Penny46-50, F
@DearAmbellina2113 how about getting some doggie gates and asserting yourself in the kitchen more? smoking should only take a few minutes right?
DearAmbellina211341-45, F
@Penny it's an open floor plan; there is nowhere to put a gate. And MIL chain smokes. There is no break in between her cigarettes.
Penny46-50, F
@DearAmbellina2113 oh dang. well, good luck getting out of there into your own place
James195661-69, M
Wish you the best of luck
You have a good plan ... pursue it with energy ... move to Dallas or the Woodlands?
DearAmbellina211341-45, F
@questionWeaver We considered Conroe, if I find work there. The Woodlands is a bit more pricey.
@DearAmbellina2113 Conroe is good and there is good work nearby

 
Post Comment