Catching up on
Miss Manners after neglecting her since before Christmas:
DEAR MISS MANNERS: How do you deal with a daughter-in-law who tries to take over in your kitchen? The holidays are here, and I’m dreading her getting in my way.
GENTLE READER: The most important thing is to refrain from mentioning the problem to relatives who scrupulously avoid getting in your way by settling themselves into comfortable chairs while you clean up. For that matter, it would be better not to mention it to the offending daughter-in-law, either. Rather, you should beg her assistance in such out-of-the-kitchen tasks as setting the table, collecting the Christmas wrappings for the trash, and the most important task of all, which Miss Manners’s own dear father described as “Go see what the children are doing and tell them to stop.”
6 comments:
Nah, it's fight-picking time. Either: sick DIL on getting the other relatives (an out-of-kitchen experience) to join her (DIL) in the kitchen cleanup detail.
Or, tell DIL, "You got it," hand her the apron, and let her fix the meal to her heart's content while you join those other relatives at the couch potato facility.
If there's any beefing by either group, stop inviting them over. They're not worth the trouble.
Eric Hines
Miss Manners' advice is always worth considering. She is the source of a very good deal of common sense.
Now, on the point of her last piece of advice, I think we have to realize that you can't leave the matter there. If you just tell the children to "stop," then you've left them without further orders. There needs to be some positive component that will keep them out of further trouble. :)
Who says you can keep them out of trouble?
The heroic life includes many duties that are actually impossible to fulfill.
Your logic is impeccable Grim. Thanks for the laugh.
It's interesting seeing the different dynamics between my mother's kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, and my mother-in-law's kitchen. In my mother's kitchen, everyone is put to work (whether they're in the kitchen or not). She has a list of things that needs to be done and the times at which they need to be done, and anyone in the house (save my father, come to think of it) can be put to work. Blood relative, spouse, or guest; does not matter, all will work on preparing dinner.
However, in my mother-in-law's kitchen everyone is sent out of the house while she cooks. My father-in-law takes everyone to the movies and for ice cream. It was a vastly different experience for me.
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