To think this is wrong?

[CrazyOldCatLady]

My family were here today (and one visit generated two AIBU threads!). My parents had brought little chocolate bunnies for the kids, who are 3 and 2.

DM brought the bunnies into the sitting room and held them out, and DD shouted 'I want the blue one!'. DM said 'No, you have to have the pink one'. I asked DM why DD had to have the pink one and she said 'Oh, if they express a preference I make sure they get the opposite, I've always done that'.

AIBU to think WTF?!

(In fairness, I would have insisted that DD ask again properly and say please - but I would have given her the blue one)

Teach your children to choose the one they don't want when Grandma is offering. Then you can have a wry smile to yourself that she is being outwitted by toddlers.

Fairenuff That's perfect! No-one likes being outwitted by toddlers, and the OP will have the satisfaction of knowing that her kids are doing that the whole time!

No! I'm not teaching my kids to get involved in her mind games. They're too little to know about that sort of crap.

Crazy

I'm so sorry. I completely missed it was your mum, not your MIL. I think the fact that she is caring for them is worrying - visits here and there are one thing, but being this rigid with them is not showing the care I'd want from her, as you say

Next time she comes over ask if she'd like a tea or coffee with sugar, then make it with salt - so she can get the opposite of her preference. It's what she would want after all.

If by "expressing a preference" she meant being a demanding little brat, then I don't find it that strange a thing to do tbh.

It sounds needlessly mean to offer someone something and deny them their preference for no reason other than to 'get one over' on them. Life deals people enough bum hands without their family members, people who are supposed to love them more than anyone else in the world, going out of their way to disappoint them just for the hell of it.
I agree that you should seek other childcare for your children - you don't want them to grow up thinking this is normal, or to feel as though they can never ask for what they want in case it is taken away from them just for expressing an opinion or preference.

Sorry, OP, I shouldn't have joked about what is a serious subject.

I agree with DoJo - Granny shouldn't be trying to put one over on the children just for the hell of it.

And SaucyJack appears to have misunderstood the point of this which isn't really about the manners, important as they are.

Suacy

This is a 3 year old you are talking about. Brat??