This is not a post about my mother-in-law per say.  To be fully transparent, I actually like my mother-in-law.  This might sound surprising to other husbands out there, but the myth that mother-in-laws are evil is not entirely true.  Well, we do have our differences when it comes to who can mind the kids and how to raise kids, as she claims she’s the only person in the universe capable of minding her grand-kids and that kids should be allowed to do whatever they want.  And, most things that I attempt to cook for the kids, how to approach homework, getting clothes and selecting after-school activities are not approved by her!

No, this post is the curse that has been placed on our family whenever she visits from the homeland, and stays in our house for 3-5 weeks at a time.  I wonder if she actually placed the curse on the family as she was clearly unhappy that we moved far away and that her ability to be with her grandkids have been severely curtailed.  During every visit, something has broken, and she not-so-secretly rolls her eyes at her failing son-in-law aka me.

In no particular order, here’s a list of some of the major things that have caused her eyes to each for the heavens, doing the “hail Mary” and throw a few Spanish curse words at me.  I’m sure she does it to show her appreciation for me and has no ill intend.

• Heater stopped working; shortly after the visit of one of the major North-Eastern storms that hit the area, the furnace decided to give up its spirit.  It would kick in, but not heat the house, which unfortunately resulted in me handing out fleeces and sweaters + extra blankets to all family members.  I would’ve offered to place most family members in the same beds, but felt it might have been slightly inappropriate 🙂  To make matter worse, our lovely landlord wasn’t overly concerned fixing it, and made me shop around.  This also meant that we had no heat for almost 2 weeks!  Talk about being out in the cold.
• Fridge stopped working; during the recent summer months, I noticed the overused fridge refusing to cool the much-needed water, drinks and foods, resulting in some food being spoiled and the kids drinking lukewarm water/drinks.  It turned out the motor had decided to go on summer holidays, left me (the-not-so-great-DIY-guy) in charge of getting the darn thing repaired.  Thankfully it only took 6 days for the engineer to assess and repair the unit.
• Oven caught fire; my dear 4 year-old daughter wanted to make a special dog food with Gold Fish pie for her imaginary friends, and decided to fill up the gas oven with said ingredients.  The ovens wasn’t overly pleased and took the opportunity to char these ingredients and this created unnecessary heat, flames and smoke.  So, we couldn’t rely on the oven for food, but thankfully the BBQ unit was more than happy to accommodate our cooking requests.  Read more here.
• Shower leaking; one morning, while taking my mandatory morning shower, I noticed the shower was dripping – even while turned off.  I called in plumping reinforcement who were not comfortable with tightening the valves – even if it was obvious that was all it would take to fix it.  Instead they wanted to charge us $1200 for a new shower, which I kindly rejected and tightened the valve myself.
• Washing machine floods; lastly, and by no means less important, the washing machine was sick and got sick all over the floor.  This meant we couldn’t wash clothes and my mother-in-law had to show us how she washed clothes when she was growing up.  No, we didn’t go to the local river or lake to wash, but filled a bucket with water and worked through the piles of clothes left by the kids.  It’s amazing how many blisters one gets when washing clothes.  In the end, the landlord agreed to replace the washer and we were saved.

As you can see, we’ve had our fair share of unfortunate events, all while my lovely mother-in-law were staying with us.  Is it just me, or does it not seem as if a curse is placed upon our residence?

I know my wife’s family can trace their roots back to Mayan indians, but something tells me my mother-in-law has retained highly powerful shaman skills, casting curses at her awesome son-in-law.

Thankfully each of the events were resolved without too much pain, but I could’ve been without these challenges while she was visiting!

In case she’s ready this, this post is written full of love and appreciation 🙂