What’s the difference between in-laws and outlaws?
Outlaws are wanted.
How many mothers-in-law does it take to change a light bulb?
Just one. She holds it and waits for the world to revolve around her.
And so on…
Let’s be honest, the list of jokes when it comes to the in-laws is a pretty big one but we may have found a way to help - with a survey of customers revealing that a holiday is seen as one of the best ways to get away and escape one of the most infamous members of the family.
Data compiled from our customers on which family members they would least like to travel with revealed there was little interest in asking a partner’s parents to come along, with more than half of those questioned insisting they’d be happy to leave them at home.
However, delving further into the data reveals that one sex is more accommodating than the other when it comes to possibility of the in-laws tagging along on an overseas adventure…
Whilst a total of 53.8% per cent of those questioned insisted that the in-laws were the people they were least likely to want joining them on holiday, that number rises to 57.3% amongst female respondents but drops down to 45.5% amongst men.
In age terms, exactly 50% of those who said they were least likely to take the in-laws with them fell into the 35-44 age bracket; way ahead of the 18.6% aged between 25-34. That’s not to say that the in-laws were the only people that customers wanted to leave behind, with 17.7% of people surveyed saying their own parents were the family members they were least likely to want to holiday with.
In contrast to the in-laws, it was the men who were less likely to want to take their folks away from home, with 21.2% of respondents choosing their parents as the family members they are least likely to want to holiday with, compared to 16.7% of women.
15.4% of those surveyed don’t think that a holiday with siblings appealed, with 10.8% selecting the ‘other’ option – suggestions ranging from cousins to grandparents and one person who insisted they had no interest in taking ‘the dead ones’ along for the ride…
“Everyone knows a joke about the mother-in-law but clearly it is no laughing matter when it comes to the possibility of her tagging along on the family holiday,” Traveltext.co.uk Managing Director Chris Brown said. “We weren’t overly surprised to see that the in-laws were the members of family that people were least likely to want to take on holiday with them, but didn’t expect to see men being more likely than women to invite them along. Maybe that’s a sign of them trying to keep their partners sweet!
“The fact that people didn’t like the idea of taking their own parents away either suggests that anyone who has grown up children of their own shouldn’t bother waiting for the call to see if they fancy a trip abroad any time soon…”