Cheap chocolate and presents from MIL

If it was me I'd be grateful that the grandparents thought of the children and bought them things.

Use the cheap eggs to make chocolate nests and having some fun baking with it with the kids to make it a nice treat.
With the toys my guess is that could be all they can afford. Times are tough for everyone at the moment. They might be doing the best they can?
Maybe say that the kids would prefer money or a voucher so they have the fun of choosing something?

Sorry but that’s on you. Attributing value to the price of a gift and equating that with love. ‘Nans not very good at picking presents but it’s the thought that counts and she loves buying stuff for you so say thank you’. Feeling unloved is outrageous to say when someone has gone through the effort of buying you a gift

You’ve tried them then?

I wonder how much of that is in your head?

It’s European chocolate, not necessarily ‘cheap’

I don’t think they do. We bought a couple of sets of fake Barbie’s to take on holiday once, thinking we’d leave them there. The kids loved them and they ended up coming home and bring added to the real Barbies

I’ve just looked at the 2 for £20 toys and so many of them are branded Disney, Peppa pig, Harry Potter etc. You can’t just use those names, they have to have a license, and massive company’s like Disney aren’t going to let dangerous toys be produced in their name. We have really strict toy safety laws in the UK

If, by cheap chocolate you mean Lidl or Aldi, their chocolate is amazing

Please be kind OP. Your in-laws are doing their best

So they should be greatful for any old shit that breaks quickly because their poor?

I love chocolate! I was a working class kid from the 60s/70s, no brand snobbishness then.

Maybe you don't like chocolate after all because the cheaper brands often have more cocoa solids in them.

I feel like your tastes are projecting onto the kids.... Chocolate to kids is just chocolate. I've never known a child to care one bit about branded chocolates until they get to high school type age and are sucked in by advertising

Don't believe for a second that your kids feel the difference between brand and non brand milk chocolate. Do you know most of them are manufuctured at the same site and have the same intredients ? If your DC are brand snobs it's because they learnt from mum..

I’ve always loved chocolate but even as a very unfussy child I couldn’t eat the cheap chocolate eggs I used to get given. I only ever got from my not well off parents (no gp) so I used to think that I just didn't like Easter eggs. Only when I got older did I realise it wasn’t easter eggs I didn’t like it was the cheap (cooking?) chocolate eggs I used to get. (My parents weren’t to know, bless ‘em, they had three kids to buy for and little money).

I did eat them but I didn’t really like them.

to be honest if that was the only present the child got it would be better that they got nothing, like I said before out of the 6 of those types of gifts either myself or family have bought for my DD4 in the last year, one was missing a component which made it unusable, two wouldn't assemble correctly because of manufacturing faults and couldn't be played with, one doesn't work at all and one broke within seconds of using it, all have gone in the bin, apart from a few bits like cars/dinosaurs etc that came as part of the set.

All those plasticky toys from bargain places are such a massive scam and they actively target people with lower income who can't afford to buy much for their family, it would be devastating for a child to receive a special gift only for it to break or be unusable through no fault of their own. There really should be more awareness of just how awful quality the manufacturing on some of this stuff is, even the pictures on the box are completely different to the product inside, it really is a massive scam.

One was a monster truck arena which looked great! one of the plastic parts was wrong so the outside of the arena wouldn't fit together to start with, and the bag of sand that came (the picture on the box shows the arena full of sand), didn't even fill a mug!.. to supposedly "fill" a dinner tray sized arena!!.. DD was so excited when she saw the box, and she really tried to hide her disappointment when none of it was useable.. I made light of it but I was absolutely fuming, B&M that one was from, so I've told my family not to buy any more 'self assemble' plastic toys from any of these places as nothing last more than a day, if they are even useable to begin with.

OP is still a snob though!

So if they spent £1-£2 more you’d be happy? Yeah right!
I find it hard to believe that ALL of the toys break so easily. We have bought lots of toys from B&M over the years. The quality is absolutely fine and our kids loved them.
Also, I have never known a child to refuse some chocolate, or given a shite about what brand it is.
If your kids have an issue with either the toys or chocolate, it’s likely they have simply inherited your unpleasant and ungrateful ways.
Give your IL’s a break. Thank them for their kindness and leave it at that.

OP can your husband talk to your MIL, do you think?

Can I suggest you teach your children to look after their toys and not break them ?
How old are the children?

You sound a bit snobby, turning your nose up at own brand chocolate, not sure what the problem is with that?
as for the cheap toys, yes clutter is annoying but you can’t tell people ( especially who are not your own parents) what to spend their money on! If your dh feels the same, get him to make gift suggestions next time?
you can’t tell people donate the toys to charity shops if they are that unwanted

@Ossoduro2
“We’ve asked MIL not to buy anything, that the kids don’t need it etc, but she doesn’t listen and she would have a massive sulk if we gave it back which I also don’t have time for.”

Can you really not a imagine how upsetting it might be to have a present handed back? And being upset is not the same as “having a massive sulk”?
Oh, it’s that “in-laws aren’t allowed feelings” thing again, isn’t it….

My children eat cheap chocolate, I'm pretty confident they wouldn't even know the difference in a taste test. I have also bought them cheap toys from B&M including the 2 for £20. I've never actually had a toy break from there and they've been well used for a good year before going on to the charity shop in very good condition. My youngest is autistic and very heavy handed. Either you're lying or your children can't look after things and maybe pick up on your expression when you see them bite into the lowly cheap chocolate.

They must be pretty young if op is buying wooden toys.

You’re contradicting yourself because one minute you’re saying it’s not edible and then you’re saying everyone has different tastes? How is your MIL meant to know your children wouldn’t like it?

My daughter got a Milky Way egg and didn’t like it, she must preferred the Lidl eggs from her Easter egg hunt

She’s got every right to tell people not to buy her kids a load of crap they don’t need.
OP, I tell everyone (that I know buys them crap) that they don’t need any more toys and we don’t have any space. They’re too young to know. We ask for money for their savings and that’s what happens and that’s where the money goes.

It’s frustrating when gifts end up unused or in the bin, but unless you’re upfront about how you really feel, she’ll probably keep buying the same things. To you it might seem like rubbish, but your MIL may have genuinely put thought into it and thinks she’s doing something nice for the kids.

If you do say something, be honest but kind. Just avoid words like “rubbish, cheap, and rotten”. They make you sound ungrateful and snobbish, even if that’s not your intent.

I imagine they're highly influenced by you turning up your nose at them.
Bingo

You know OP wouldn't be happy either if they simply put the money they spend into a card either.

Laughing at OP thinking Nestle is quality chocolate too. Such a refined palate.

Lidl chocolate is way nicer than nestle!!

I think your children have copied your feelings.

give the toys to charity shop, don’t bin them

The toys OP mentioned from b&m are fine. My daughter got some 2 Christmas’s ago and they aren’t ’broke into pieces’ yet