Julie Garrick Left Disgusting Messes in Mother-in-Law’s Kitchen

My sister-in-law Julie Garrick of Denver was SO disrespectful to my mother while she was living practically rent-free at my parents’ house.

Kitchen messes after Julie was in there were a daily occurrence. I was over my parents’ house a LOT because they were very elderly.

On many occasions I slept over to see one of them through their latest medical issue.

So when I say that Julie habitually left messes in the kitchen, my observations are spot-on accurate.

I’d frequently see pots left out of pasta or rice – just sitting on the counter, even though Julie, her husband (my brother) Lance and their three kids had finished dinner at least a FEW HOURS prior.

When a pot of pasta or rice has been left out for a few hours, UNCOVERED, it gets gross fast. She also left out meat!

I have no idea why my sister-in-law was too lazy to put the leftover food in a plastic container for refrigeration or dump the leftovers down the kitchen disposal.

This leaves one explanation: She left the food out on purpose to piss off my 89-year-old mother.

Why ELSE would she have left out this food? Julie Garrick

Okay, maybe in your OWN house, you might have this habit of not wanting to put food away immediately after dinner. That is your right.

But Julie was living in my parents’ house because Lance had moved his family from Las Vegas back to Colorado after he got a new job in Denver.

Because they didn’t have a place to move into and faked financial neediness to my parents, my parents offered them the house’s roomy basement and respectful use of the upstairs, as a temporary place while they house hunted (which is a huge story in itself, as their house hunting never got off the ground and they eventually ceased looking!).

A few times I had seen my mother cleaning up the pots and pans of yucky leftovers that her daughter-in-law had left behind. I then told her, “Don’t clean up after Julie or you’ll encourage her to continue being a pig.”

My mother agreed. Whenever, subsequent to that, I noticed my mother looking at a pot or pan with disgust, I said, “DON’T clean it up. Let HER do it.”

And she’d reply, “I’m not touching it!” Julie Garrick, Denver

Julie’s Ridiculous Excuse for not Immediately Cleaning up After Dinner

I heard this straight from Lance. The excuse was that she couldn’t immediately tend to kitchen cleanup because “the kids needed her attention.” Julie Garrick, HIghlands Ranch, Denver

My mother had complained about the kitchen to Julie and/or Lance – at least once – because Lance had also told me:

“Mom doesn’t understand that when the kids need Julie, she must drop what she’s doing and tend to the kids, and that she’ll clean the messes later.”

When Lance told me this rubbish, my mother was in the hospital for the last time, in very serious condition. I was too distraught to point out to Lance all the holes in this outrageous excuse.

My mother raised SIX kids. SIX. Julie Garrick
Yet she never left pots and pans of leftover food lying around! Highlands Ranch

Ask yourself what urgent crisis situation with Julie’s kids always just happened to come RIGHT when it was time to clean up a mess?

Gee, what a coincidence!! And gee, this happened nearly every single evening after dinner! What are the odds?!

What – was preschooler Talon starting fires or was baby Holly choking on a piece of glass every time Mama was about to clean up the kitchen?

Fucking bullshit. And my mother knew this.

Many times I witnessed the events that occurred after meals: Julie just sitting at the table while Talon and Holly were in their high chairs licking their chops, and their adolescent Dakota sitting there playing around with her phone or reading a children’s book.

Lance would be yakking with Julie or the kids or watching TV.

Damn, Julie Dearest had PLENTY OF TIME to clean up the leftovers.

What was SO urgent with the younger kids, following meals, that prevented my sister-in-law from putting away or discarding leftover food?

She could have gotten off her can and done this while the kids stayed in their high chairs licking their chops.

She could have asked Dakota to do the job, for Pete’s sake. This would have taught the girl some responsibility, and would have put her on her feet more often – which she needed to do, being that she spent a LOT of time watching cartoons on the first floor (where my parents did their living).

Dakota was home schooled and thus had tons of spare time on her hands, much of it spent tying up the kitchen watching cartoons or draped on living room furniture — watching cartoons. My niece was 12 and 13 throughout all this!

Prior to them moving in, my mother enjoyed sitting at the kitchen table doing crossword puzzles or combing through coupons. But NOW, the kitchen table was often sticky and always had unwashed sippy cups on it.

Smelly, crumb-laden high chairs were never put away, but instead, in plain sight of any adult sitting at that table.

Often my father would want to nap in his favorite living room recliner — but couldn’t because Dakota was glued to the TV there, too. Finally he told Lance she was interfering with his privacy and why wasn’t she watching TV downstairs where their primary living quarters were?

Never an Urgent Situation Highlands Ranch

I never, ever witnessed an urgent situation with the kids, immediately after any meal, that legitimately prevented Julie from cleaning up all the messes.

Again, I was there a LOT. My parents were 89 and 93 when my brother’s family moved in. I had my parents’ back and was at their house often enough to intimately know that woman’s routine.

She also never cleaned up the egg splatter on the stove and walls when scrambling eggs. My mother complained to her about this.

Julie’s ridiculous response was that she deliberately left the egg mess to allow the remnants to harden, which were then easier to clean up.

But Julie would never follow through, and my mother ended up cleaning up the splatter – and there was always a lot of it. Lance’s family of five ate like horses, so we’re talking a LOT of scrambled eggs.

Julie said that cleaning up fresh egg splatter was difficult.

Oh boo hoo. Clean the damn eggs, you effing ingrate! It’s NOT your house!

When you have your OWN house you can do whatever you want with splattered eggs.

But when you’re living in your very elderly in-laws’ house for only $300/month in rent, dammit, RESPECT THE HOUSE RULES AND CLEAN UP THE EGGS WHEN THE MEAL IS OVER, and NOT some phantom time later in the name of “It’s hard to clean up eggs when they’re still sticky.”

What a load of crap. So shameful. Julie Garrick Highlands Ranch