Cheap chocolate and presents from MIL

Stereotype much? 🙄😆

DD isn’t some kind of no sugar MN kid, she just doesn’t have a sweet tooth and likes some chocolate and not others. Frankly I don’t believe a word of the “my kids eat any chocolate and can’t tell any difference” stuff.

Every kid I’ve ever met had preferences - likes milk chocolate but not dark, white chocolate but not smarties, after eights but not toffee, Milky Way but not Crunchie, etc etc., even back in the 80s when we all munched endless chocolate bars, kids had some things they liked and some they didn’t.

Op ignore the chocolate and as pp said suggest toys are left at theirs

I can see their reasoning they think I assume these toys are good and the DC will like them and into the bargain they're getting a cheap deal.

Have you/they got any savings fir them?

Could you say the toys are breaking can they keep receipts to give back because there is a quality issue. They genuinely may not know and once you tell them and it's still happening all bets are off.

I think it can feel careless and unfeeling if they're well off but always going for the bargain stuff.

It's a shame the presents are so low quality that they disappoint the kids. I get it that it seems like an unnecessary waste and one wonders what on earth they're thinking.

But I'm sure your kids aren't expecting anything great from them by now. And another way to look at it is that it's a chance to teach your kids good manners and how to be gracious, meaning say thank you and don't hurt people's feelings or insult them by complaining about the gift they chose for you.

The etiquette I learned is that no, you can't complain about gifts to the giver or request something different instead, because you are never supposed to expect gifts in the first place, nor think you have any business telling someone else how to spend their money (including telling them not to spend the money at all). That person thought of you and got you (or your kids) something and that's all that counts (even if they aren't very good at it).

Also, in the overall scheme of things, it's simply not important. Okay, so the grandparents are terrible at picking out gifts. But is that, in itself, even the lowest score of "1" on a scale of 1-10 of what matters in life?

What have the dc to suggest they are ungrateful exactly?

Yes! It’s gift buying for the pleasure of the giver instead of thinking about the recipient. The worst kind of gift buyer.

Do they only eat Heinz ketchup and Hovis bread?
No shop brands for your little darlings 😂

Its chocolate, ffs.

And theres some really good 2 for £20 toys in the likes of B&M
If your children are breaking them, thats on you, Teach them to be more careful

’My parents do better’ BS

When I was a child half of all money given to us at Christmas or for birthdays was spent on clothes, usually school uniform. It still grates over half a century later.

Also, if you think there's something wrong with Lidl or Aldi chocolates, most peoples tastebuds say otherwise. It's Nestle/Cadbury that's crap these days.

My dc have always had chocolate preferences. And if it was something they didn’t like they would leave it until it went dry and white.

I certainly wasn’t going to force them to eat processed food they didn’t like. It’s not like it was good for them anyway.

one really dislikes Lindt. He’s an adult now and still doesn’t like it. Another loves Lindt but will pass on Cadbury. The other one will eat most chocolate but hates anything with praline or ganache type stuff in it. All of them dislike Hershey's. I don’t like Cadbury or lindor or anything with hazelnuts

nothing to do with snobbery. They had these preferences from before they were old enough to know brands. Two of them don’t have a sweet tooth so unless it is something they like they will pass on it.

My mum has money, but grew up poor after her father died when she was 7 and her mother tried to support them before benefits really existed. She was a charity case.

She can't bring herself to spend excessively on toys and chocolate eggs and the like, but has saved over 25k for every grandchild in trust funds for uni or house deposits. These are things which she considers important.

We respect her decision.

Tesco's chocolate is made by Hotel Chocolat . Most of the supermarket own brands are made by the bigger brands .

I'd get dh to suggest you've got a lot of stuff and the kids would really like books/activity books/craft stuff/colouring books/jigsaws etc that are fairly reliable wherever they come from. And just don't stress about the chocolate. It might work fine in brownies or as the chocolate in choc chip cookies.

Why? Because they don’t like the bad chocolate? How does that make someone bad. If you don’t like the taste you don’t like the taste.

I don’t like red wine. Does that make me spoilt and ungrateful?

surely you are not suggesting people should just hold their breath and shovel stuff in their gob when they don’t like it.

🤣
Honestly some of the snobs on here.

I’m sorry if the OP feels she is getting a hard time.
Not being snobbish and unkind would fix that for her.

Yuck, I hear you OP, can't stand that cheap advent calendar style choc.

I like Lidl chocolate. I used to buy the kids the Lidl chocolate hens at Easter when they were younger (and always put one in the basket for myself).

You are getting a hard time Op but I do understand you’d rather one nice small thing than a big pile of tat. We had similar when dd young from a relative, it’s about show and turning up with armfuls of stuff where you are thinking where am I going to put this and feeling bad when it’s all wasted or thrown away. Could you encourage an experience gift eg don’t buy them Easter gifts take them to park and buy ice cream or buy a pass for zoo for a birthday.

I wasn't talking about the special Mumsnet children who are on super healthy massive salads and no sugar diets.

They, of course, will be able to identify different brands of chocolate from birth. When I said "most" I meant the children in real life that I know, and mine when they were young.

They didn't sit and ponder the taste but hoovered up any kind of chocolate, particularly liked the stuff aimed at kids, for birthdays, Christmas etc because of the packaging or the shape.

Exactly this.

Have you even considered that does not have the money to buy better quality stuff?

You sound seriously entitled and there is nothing wrong with supermarket own brand goods.

If you want expensive stuff then buy your own.

I’m glad someone else agrees rather than trying to make out I can't actually like chocolate. It wouldn’t surprise me to know some easter eggs are still being made with a lesser chocolate.

Donate the chocolate to somewhere where children who get nothing would appreciate it.
And be honest with your MIL that she's wasting her money because you/your kids don't like cheap chocolate.

It really is. Their Fin Carre salted caramel milk chocolate is the stuff of confectionary heaven too.

Anything from Cadburys or Nestle tastes like sweetened muck in comparison.

Totally agree

Donate it to the charity shop. Dont chuck it in the bin.