Woman Tells Elderly Mother-in-Law to Use Kiddie Eating Utensils

Julie Garrick of Highlands Ranch, Denver told her 89-year-old mother-in-law to use the children’s eating utensils after my mother reported that Julie was using up all of the adult utensils for her family’s breakfasts.

Julie and my brother, Lance, were welcomed into my elderly parents’ house because Lance had a job transfer from Las Vegas and no place to immediately move to upon arriving in my parents’ Colorado hometown.

So my generous parents opened up their house to them – with the understanding that Lance and Julie would promptly begin hunting for their new Denver metro-area house once they were settled into my parents’ very roomy finished basement.

My sister-in-law would be up long before my parents awakened, to make breakfast for Lance and their three children, ages 12, 3 and 2. Julie Garrick, Denver, Highlands Ranch

Somehow, this operation resulted in an absence of the adult eating utensils once my mother was awake and in the kitchen to make breakfast for my father.

Prior to my brother and his wife moving in, my mother had only enough utensils – with a little to spare – for two adults.

My mother had presumed that her daughter-in-law would be bringing in enough utensils for her family once they moved into the house. Julie Garrick, Denver, Highlands Ranch

In fact, this was assumed, once they did move in, being that on move-in day, they brought in box after box after box. The boxes were endless. In no time, numerous gadgets appeared in the kitchen including a funky egg boiler, a humungous frying pan, a huge slow-cooker and a bunch of kiddie eating utensils.

But despite Julie’s ownership of every imaginable kitchen gadget, she wouldn’t buy her own set of adult eating utensils and instead used my mother’s.

My mother would find them in the dishwasher – still dirty from the earlier breakfast Julie had prepared (and these breakfasts were elaborate, using up all the utensils. Don’t ask me how, but many got used up for just five people).

My mother then did not have any forks, knives or spoons to use for her breakfast prep for herself and my father.

Julie, Lance and their three kids would eat breakfast and be done by around 8 am or so, when Lance then left for work at a jewelry company.

My sister-in-law would then do some cleaning up (“some” is the key word here) and then go downstairs with her kids. The 12-year-old was home-schooled.

My mother told me the following:

The only eating utensils left in the drawer were the kiddie utensils.

They were miniature with plastic handles. No adult in his or her right mind would want to use these for THEMSELVES.

But Julie never had her toddlers use them.

My mother pointed out to her daughter-in-law that she kept using up the adult utensils and that she (my mother) had none for herself or her husband.

Julie’s response was:

“Then just use the children’s utensils.”

My mother was floored. How disrespectful was THIS?!

So here we have a woman actually having the nerve to tell the 89-year-old woman who’s letting her family rent there for only $300 a month (yes, you read that right), TO USE THE CHILDREN’S EATING UTENSILS.

My mother told me that there was NO way she was going to make her husband eat with children’s utensils.

“I’ve been feeding your father for 65 years and I’m not suddenly going to put tiny plastic utensils before him for breakfast!”

I just could not believe how Julie could have been so incredibly disrespectful to her mother-in-law – the very woman who had given them a big roomy house to stay in!

Was there any reason this miserable sister-in-law couldn’t have her two toddlers using the kiddie utensils?

NO, NO and NO.

Furthermore, why didn’t she at least wash the adult utensils so that they’d be available for my mother?

I guess a plan like that was beyond the scope of someone as inconsiderate and disrespectful to my 89-year-old mother as Julie Garrick. Highlands Ranch, Denver

My mother had to actually hide some utensils late every evening to ensure she’d have them for the following morning, as her daughter-in-law also used them up for lunches and big dinners.

Way to go, Sis-in-law Dearest! Julie Garrick of Denver, Highlands Ranch