my mother in-law is so tight.......

[whymummy]

when i had my first son she wanted me to put his wet disposable nappies on the radiator and use them again

[kathsmj]

She just sounds a few sandwiches short of a picnic if you ask me!

[manna]

I hate the little scrapy noises mine makes when she scraps the last speck of food off the plate when feeding ds (or herself, come to that!)!!

[undercover1]

Not my MIL, but my sister-in-law (and I've changed my name for this, just in case). She told me once, after my children couldn't eat the tomato soup she'd served them "I suppose you've been spoiling them with Heinz".

[whymummy]

my friend`s m in l collects the toys from happy meals to give them as birthday presents!!!

[kathsmj]

This is hilarious, cannot believe how mean they all are. I don't see my Mother-in-law much, just aswell really, she is mean with her time, decided she didn't want to grow old gracefully and resigned from any granny duties, but she does buy my kids gifts, which doesn't mean much to me as I am far from the materialistic type.
However, whymummy, you do seem to have a bizarre situation with your mum-in-law, she sounds comical. Do you see it this way or are you upset by it?

[whymummy]

hi kath,at first it really upset me but now i just laugh,shes unbelievable,is like she buys my kids crappy toys from the pound shop and when they break she says the kids are spoiled and dont know the value of things(£1?)ha,ha

[Furball]

Mine gave me the 'get one free' top for Christmas she got when she bought hers!

[whymummy]

furball that`s awful,was it nice?

[Namechange2]

I've changed my name for this too. My MIL was not too impressed when I was pg with DS1. She gave me bags of baby clothes that she had in her loft that people had given to her to send back to her home country (we are talking eastern block country here) for less fortunately families. Aparently the postage is very expensive and her friends very generous so there is a large amount of children's clothes in the loft still waiting to be sent. Personally I would have thought most of them fit for the bin, I washed sick off them (yes some things had not even been washed before they were donated) and sorted through the babygros that had more holes in than anything else, washed, ironed and sorted them all out then gave them to DH to hand back to her. I think she got the message as she was going to keep passing on the next size of clothes as we needed them but hasn't given us any since. Next time round she stretched to a pack of two babygros from Woolies, wouldn't be surprised if they had been in the sale and a scrawny bunch of carnations. Don't want to sound ungrateful but when you see what they will spend money on it makes you wonder.

[whymummy]

she thought a steriliser was a complete waste of money and that in her days they used boiling water to rinse the bottles,one day i reluctanly left the baby with her to go to the shops and on my return SHOCK,HORROR!!not only she`d sterilised the bottles her way she was drying them with a tea towel,i completely lost it! my son was a week old and had been born 7 weeks premature!!!i grabed the bottles and sterilised them twice in front of her,grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

[Furball]

Whymummy - I took it as a complement - she bought me a size 14 where I am a 16/18!! I will probably never wear it though, she had a lilac one and mine was white. (I'm very fair and white makes me look Blurrgh)

We do get on alright really though, she has her little ways. It was DH's birthday yesterday and we had a 'giggle' in anticipation to what he might receive and he actually got a cheque. Which is good in some ways, but wheres the laughter factor in that?

My worst had to be my auntie (who sadly is no longer with us) but christmas and birthdays were always a scream with what she had bought everybody. We still laugh now. Which is nice, if you look at it that way.

[Meid]

My friends ex-MIL got her a jumper from M&S for Christmas one year. As it wasn't her taste she took it back only to find it had been discontinued for 16 YEARS! Unbelievable but true!

[whymummy]

meid thats so funny,im pleased mine is not the only one!!
furball she couldn`t get the colour or size right?mine buys me nickers that go all the way up to my armpits

[Furball]

Whymummy - I know, but you don't need these things clogging up your wardrobe and when the charity people deliver those bags asking for unwanted items etc. We just hand them all over. So when you are browsing through a charity shop and see something - still with the tag on and obviously unused/unworn, think of me, as it was probably mine!!!!

[whymummy]

now that u mentioned charity shops i took everything that shes ever given me(including the toilet mat with bleach all over it)to a charity shop and when she was over here she went in,i waited outside worried sick that shell find her things there,thankfully she didn`t,i will look for your things and if you find the toilet mat let me know,ha,ha,ha

[prufrock]

mine bought me teatowels for Christmas

[whymummy]

prufrock
how thoughtful,isn`t that what you always wanted?how mean can they be???

[Janeway]

mine made some cot sheets for ds - out of old sheets of her bed that had become too worn in the centre - they're full of patches and "thinner" bits, and have never come up white.

[zebra]

The worst part about reading this thread is knowing for absolute certain that one day my DIL's will be enthusiastically contributing to it.

[Madie]

My own sister and her dh is like this. It can be funny but sometimes it can be annoying - and unbelievable at times. On my Mums birthday she announced she was treating my Mum to meal in a restaurant. I found out later that the restaurant was having a 2 for 1 deal, frequented by 20 somethings - not somewhere my Mum would have liked!

With her ds, my sister will only change his nappy when it pratically bursting, she keeps in the same clothes for 3 days at a time - (her and dh do this too) - to save on the washing machine bills !!!

Incidentally I am intrigued how she keeps her ds clothes clean for that long as my dd goes through 2 outfits a day as she's so messy !

[Madie]

Oh and I forgot to add when my sis and her dh meaness really showed was when my dh was away on business and I needed help with nursery pickups for my dd, she charged me the going taxi-rates with no discounts whatsoever!

[mieow]

I get make-up every year for xmas from the £1 shops. DH gets smellies from his mum while his 28 yr old brother who still lives at home gets a games consule, stero, or something very expensive, aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

[Furball]

Mine very kindly helped out in the kitchen at tea-time on Sunday and deceided to take the sharpest knife out the block and cut cucumber directly on my work surface! Thanks a bunch mate, isn't that why chopping boards were invented?

[Ghosty]

Madie ... that is shocking about your sister and the taxi bills ... jaw on floor here!
My MIL has never given DS a Xmas present ... nor did she give him a christening present ... She did give 10 quid once to open a bank account with ... he is her only grandchild and didn't even send a card this xmas. I was upset but my own family made up for it ...

[pie]

My ex husband's grandmother gave us tea towels as a WEDDING PRESENT. I think that the best bit about divorcing him was not having to be grateful for the single towel we once got for Xmas.