Ok, I'm fairly sure I am BU but can I just check if I'm the only person in the world who would be annoyed by this?

[morethanlaundry]

I have two DS' ages 4 and 6.

My Mum and Dad go on holiday A LOT. Probably, go abroad maybe once a month/once every 6 weeks.

About 2 years ago my Mum started sending postcards to the DS' from her holiday. Fine, lovely.

Then she decided she was going to buy a keepsake box for the DS' to keep all of the postcards from her holidays in.

It's about the size of a large shoebox - we have no storage in this house (which she knows). I used to keep it under the computer desk but the DS' kept getting hold of it, ripping the postcards or scribbling them.

I've moved it to the garage now, and I will be honest - I don't put every single postcard they send in it. My Mum is unhappy that the box is out in the garage, that I am not filing the postcards or (presumably) going through them again.

I know it's not a HUGE thing she's asking of me, but I find it annoying because:

a) there is nowhere in the house available to store them and she knows this
b) she is the least sentimental person ever and anything the DC draw or make for her gets sent out
c) at the end of the day these are memories of HER holidays, not the DS' and they are just not of the mindset, at 6 and 4 (or ever??) to want to treasure a box of postcards from someone else's holidays.

How unreasonable am I being? Would you just suck it up and file everyone of them and lovingly bring them out every now and then?

It's not really an option to leave the box at her house (as tempting as it is) as they don't live locally.

Keep them in a shoebox in the garage, then give them pride of place in the centre of the coffee table when she visits.

I'll break my normal habit of reading the entire thread (as I'm tired tonight) and just answer the OP.

When I was very young, my dad travelled all the time in the Navy, so he was gone a lot. He routinely sent me and each of my sisters postcards from locations that he was at with a little message for us on them - just simple stuff, like "be good for your mum, see you soon, love you, Daddy" and things like that. My mother carefully saved them for us. Now that I'm an adult and my dad has passed away, they are some of my most treasured things that he gave me.

They may not mean a lot now as they're just small children, but when they're grown up and your parents are gone, they might look at them differently.

I'm with flange, I can't really see the boys feeling like that about granny's postcards, but I'm an old cynic with rabid decluttering tendencies. But on the off-chance that they will, OK then, the postcards can be kept, if she insists. At her house!

I still have postcards my Grandmother sent me when I was 4.....and I'm 45 now. They are very sentimental. So YABU in my opinion!

It's a shoebox and I think what your mum is doing is lovely.

Sending postcards is lovely. Ordering that the postcards to be kept, when said woman refuses to keep any items from grandchildren in her own home, is not lovely. It is controlling and arsey.

God I hate when some one else gives me something they think I should find important and keep forever.
My Mum looked surprised when I threw away a postcard that had floated round the house for a few weeks. I have no interest in keeping other peoples interesting stuff I have enough crap in my house belonging to Dh me and the kids.
I have one old letter to me from each of my grandparents before they died. Thats all and they are tucked in a sock drawer.

It's only a large shoebox! My place is a bit pokey and cluttered but even I could find space for a shoebox! Bottom of the wardrobe? Under the bed? I would suck it up because it means something to your parents. Also your DC might not be bothered by the postcards now but they will see them differently once they are older and your parents have passed, it shows they were thinking of them. Besides your DC might be interested in geography when they are older and enjoy seeing postcards from different countries, some people collect them.