9
JsonBoa
3d

So, my wife's family has a "no shoes inside the house" rule, what is fine... until you realize that they mean "*no shoes inside the house*" - regardless if you are actually wearing the shoes or if those are in your luggage or something.
So you're supposed to leave all footwear on a shelf on this bench outside their door.
That proved to be tricky when my 10yo twin girls started freaking out that someone was going to steal their prized shoes if we left those outside the house during the night.
It would actually be a risk in our own neighborhood, infested with amazon-package kleptomaniacs, but here we are deep in the country.
Now, I've been to my in-laws place many times, and they absolutely cannot be reasoned with. I wish I could use their stubbornness to train a LLM into relentless compliance with company policy.
So, in order to spare my girls from some of my in-laws paranoia, I've spent some time before we came here rigging up a wifi cam to a facial detection service. (I know I've just exchanged their covid-style paranoia with my own surveillance-state-style paranoia. Those are the times we live in. But i can see the irony)
The server monitors the camera feed and stores the first few seconds before, during and after some face is detected.
I trained a facial rekognition model with our family's faces and had it notify me every time some unknown face appears on camera.
Finally, I've printed a "smile, you are on camera!" sign, taped it over the laces of my tracking boots, and hid the camera (and a powerbank) inside one of the boots.
My daughters were pacified with that solution, my wife laughed out loud with a devilish smile, and my in-laws completely ignored me when I tried to explain it all. Perfect.

The system has been up and running since before christmas. It notified us when some relatives arrived for celebrations and one package delivery - no shoe-related shenanigans. Until this morning.
My daughters have been playing with some neighbor kids, and a couple of those decided to fill their shoes with mud on this new-year morning, as a stupid childish prank.
I know because they kneeled in front of the camera earlier today.
Right when I was finishing up my stretches for the morning... less than 2m away from the door.
The wicked kids looked straight at the camera, and you can actually pinpoint the moment that they realize they have been caught. Then you can see when they hear me unlock the door...
I opened the door to find a bucket full of mud and no soul on sight.
I'm not posting the video, they are minors, after all. But my family is sure to laugh at it every year... and my in-laws will keep on bringing it up with the kids' grandparents forever :)

Comments
  • 2
    So nobody ever works in the house to fix stuff? I would not forget to wear boots or shoes when working on hardware so I don't injure my feet. Seems weird to have a rule like that. My wife is a seamstress so it is not unusual to find pins on the floor.
  • 2
    @Demolishun you could have a separate set of work boots for indoors and outdoors. Then again, if you only ever walk to and from your car, your boots won't get that dirty.

    Are indoor shoes also banned in this house? How about sandals or barefoot shoes? Are socks allowed, and why make that exception?
  • 2
    @Demolishun I didn't know what a seamstress was while having worked for a huge curtain imperium. Miracle. But is she really a seamstress or does he just nail a lot?

    I have learned a lot from this story. Never buy expensive shoes for kiddo's!

    But this story is amazing! If I want to do smth cool like that, my former environment would say 'why would you' blablabla. Fuck them :)

    I had expensive clothes too as kid. Once bought a single shirt from my dad's money for 50,-. He kicked my ass for that. Now, i'm grown up and only own some jeans / shoes of that price. I think i'm wearing less than 100,- in total in daily life. Nike became cheaper somehow.
  • 1
    @retoor she says she is more of a tailor I guess. Always tweaking dresses and suits and what not. Also creating jackets from scratch. She hates doing that though.
  • 3
    camera, power, facial recognition, notifications....

    wouldn't it be easier just to get a shoe rack with doors and a lock?
  • 1
    @qwwerty I had an hour long argument with them back in '21 about exactly that. They "never had any problem with their perfectly good shoe rack"
  • 1
    @Demolishun my FIL has this workspace in his garage, that they do not count as "inside the house".
    That being said, I've never seen a contractor inside their house, but if the very insufficient number of power outlets in each room is an indicator, they haven't had any renovations done in a while.
    But they do allow slippers inside their house (@electrineer ) so long as those never, ever touch the ground outside.

    And, @retoor , my wife hardly ever shuts down my crazy ideas. She is always reminding me that she is a keeper.
    That being said, she knows how one must to come with stupidly complex solutions to handle her parents' stubbornness. My parents are the same.
  • 0
    This is why sometimes flexibility should be replaced by assertiveness, but not everyone can get the balance right.
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