I have a 2 year old son, he is the first grandchild on both sides, and so my parents and the in laws want to spoil him. This is lovely, but it’s the type of gifts they get that drive me mad. They are all about spending, spending, spending with ZERO thought. Things they have bought;
- cheap tat from abroad with loose parts, choking hazards, button batteries, etc, that’s all completely age inappropriate.
- duplicates of stuff I’m guessing they don’t know we already have (they never bother to ask).
- duplicates of things they know we already have (e.g. two play hoovers, two doll prams, two bubble machines.) they explicitly say they got it because they know we already have one but “this is a slightly different version / style”.
- stuff we would never want (e.g. a ten foot trampoline when our garden is only 20 feet long and wide).
- hampers of chocolate (our son in allergic to dairy, which they know).
I’ve tried politely reminding them no gifts are ever expected, that if they really want to buy him something to ask and we can at least tell them if we already have it / whether it’s suitable. When niceties didn’t work, I bluntly told them “he already has this, you can either take it back or I will sell it (second hand for less than you paid)” to which they told me to sell them. But yet it still continues. I am honestly sick of having to do a big display of gratitude (they expect it) for these endless useless gifts. Can I just refuse to accept things now? How can I make them get the message?