I feel so bad writing this but DP thinks it’s unfair and my friends think it is fair! MIL is very frugal and often buys secondhand gifts. This doesn’t bother me, especially for DD who is 6 months as she doesn’t get lots of use out of clothes etc.
When she was born MIL brought us 2 secondhand bouncers, a rocking horse and some other toys. I’d already bought a bouncer which matched our living room (superficial I know!) and MIL knew this, so I said I’d leave one bouncer at my DMs and MIL could have the other at her house. I feel awful but the rocking horse was filthy, it smelled like smoke and despite all my efforts to clean it it was just filthy so I ended up taking it to the tip 😳
Anyway, yesterday MIL came to give Dd her Xmas gifts. She got her another secondhand bouncer but this one has a broken strap and again stinks of smoke, a baby bath which DD won’t fit in, another jumperoo (she has one), a walker (I probably sound ungrateful but I said I didn’t want one as we have limited space and she already has the jumperoo), and a cot mobile which the speaker is muffled and broke. She said she’d bought it all for £25 off a friend. I sound awful saying this but I would’ve rather she gave DD the money for her bank, I’ve now got all this stuff and no where to put it and I won’t get any use out of some of it. DP doesn’t want to hurt her feelings and said we should keep hold of the stuff and put it in the loft or try fix/clean it.
I just haven’t got the space! MIL knows what DD has and what she needs, and I’d rather donate some things and get rid of others. I know she’d be offended if she found out or came round and DD wasn’t using the presents as previously she bought us a pair of curtains from a charity shop that was frayed and didn’t match our living room and she got into a huff with DP when he said he’d passed them on 