To want to hide from the inlaws for the rest of Christmas...

[FriedPisces]

Fabulous start to the family festivities today:
Go to visit MIL and her DH. Exchange gifts. DS (6) unwraps a tin for carrying his Hot Wheels cars around. Excellent! Takes off clingfilm and unclips it to find it empty. Cries big blobby tears, quietly says "it's empty." Explain we can put his cars in it when we get home. He then Loudly and angrily declares it the "worst present I have ever received! I HATE IT"
Christ I was mortified. Did explain quietly so as not to make even more of a scene that we can put the cars in later and we mustn't say things like that when we receive gifts because now GM is sad (she wasn't sad, she was fucking furious 😳)
Took him a while to come round but he left hugging it to his chest. Said to MIL that I was sorry, his reactions to things are something we're working on and will get him to send a thank you card but she said "well it annoyed me. Not sure he'll be getting anything for his birthday." Sigh. So yeah. Merry Christmas to me.
Then we discover that DD has bloody headlice! Fucking hell!
WIBU to hide from the DIL and his DW and my perfect BILs and SILs tomorrow?

Wine/gin/ port in the house? Id pour yourself a big one!

Oh dear I can see how he made the assumption but what would be the point in a full storage tin?

Poor kid, wouldn't have killed your MIL to put a couple of new cars in the tin for heaven's sake, they only cost about a pound!

wow I'm sorry but that is a crap present!

That was a crap present.

Well I can understand your son's reaction- she could have bought 1 to put in it - and that then meant you were the one left to manage the situation, and instead you then got her brunt, totally unfair! And head lice - bloody things......time to crack open the brandy I think....

Christ yes, fancy giving the poor boy an empty tin! Of course he thought there'd be something in the bloody thing. What a twat your Mil is.

I don't think it was that crap...but it would have been better if she had told you in advance that she had got him it so you could bring a few of his cars with him to put in it, and explain that's how it works.

An empty tin is a shit present.

What was she thinking?

An empty box? He's 6. What was she thinking?

Oh bless my kids would have been the same. Thankfully my mil has become used to this and the more she has the better the kids have got.

Drink?

It was kind of setting him up to fail. A tin that has his favourite toy on =his favourite toy inside in his mind. To open it and find no toy would be upsetting at that age.

It was put on an Amazon list along with a pack of 4 of 5 cars but only the tin was in her fuckin tight budget. Our relationship is a stereotypical Mil/DIL strained at best and this had not helped. The vodka is well and truly open now, believe me!

My kids would have been exactly the same, down to the nits.
MIL is a bit fucking precious, no?

Could be worse, I've got nits myself.

Crap present! I remember my nephew getting a pack of batteries wrapped up with a box of tissues to bulk it out. The batteries kind of made sense with other pressies in the heap, but it totally freaked him out.

Did he ask for a storage tin specifically?

I can well see how it might be disappointing for a six year old who doesn't the concept of "contents not included", but I've just googled the tins- and they're not actually a shit present in and of themselves.

One day you'll all laugh about it.

Sorry but PMSL. Your MIL got a piercingly accurate review of her present giving. I think the nits were an appropriate exchange

Why is it a crap present? It is a container for storing or transporting cars he already has.

I would have been furious with mine if they had ever reacted in any such a way to a gift, even at age 6. It is very ungrateful and ungracious. They would have been read the riot act.

I don't blame your MIL for being annoyed and not wanting to buy him anything for his birthday. With a reaction like that she could be forgiven for thinking that he simply doesn't deserve it.

Your DS is only six! Its not really a brilliant present. A small car wouldn't have cost much at all. Cant believe your MIL made such a song and dance of his reaction. He hasn't had lots of years of experience to negotiate gift acceptance etiquette ... or to learn to regulate those disappointment emotions. Sounds so hard for you though OP.

Another one saying crap present. Of course a 6 yr old is going to think there was something inside.

Your MIL is a twat for thinking she could give an empty tin to a 6 year old. What a stupid present, you can buy Hotwheels cars in Poundland (mother of a Hotwheel obsessed child myself, check out the hauler that holds 50 cars!).

Her reaction was ridiculous, she is seriously thinking of not buying him a birthday present. She should have learned that she needs to dig a bit deeper for a couple of cars that cost a couple of quid fgs.

I was pretty disappointed in him for reacting like that if I'm honest. I'm not dragging him up despite what she might say He was given a serious but calm talking to when we got home but I didn't want to get cross with him while we were there because I didn't want to make more of a scene.

But she is a piece of work and her genorosity of spirit is and always has been severely lacking. She's the sort of woman who, if you got knocked down by a car, would tell you it was your fault.

Vodka's kicking in now

Your MIL's response was very childlike.

Decent grandparenting would be to chat to him about it, help him over it, talk nicely about what we do in those situations, tell him about a time when she received a disappointing present etc. At the very very least an adult response would be to have a quiet laugh with you over it.

Your MIL acted just as ungraciously as your 6yo.

I don't understand why you opened presents today? Doesn't everyone wait until tomorrow? Confused. Not surprised your 6 year old felt like that. Surely it wouldn't have hurt for MIL to let you know what she was doing and you could've provided the cars alongside it?