MIL giving me too many photos

[sendinallthesheep]

My MIL is a brilliant photographer and has taken some gorgeous photos of DD, with and without me and DH, since she was born.

But she keeps giving me large (A3 size) framed prints of them. We now have six and DD is only 1.5 years old! If MIL carries on at this rate, we'll have 50+ by the time DD leaves home.

We are renovating, so there is nothing on the walls at the moment anyway but photo galleries just aren't our thing. We'd planned to have a couple of small frames on a shelf in the living room but that's it.

It's a lovely gesture and I know MIL gets a lot of pleasure choosing the photos and framing them. I would hate to hurt her feelings but we simply don't have the space to store them, and while I truly am grateful, we just don't want lots of large photos on the walls.

AIBU to want her to stop? If I'm not, any suggestions as to how to ask her?

Can you suggest her getting you photobooks instead? Maybe frame it as "oh MIL, you are such an amazing photographer, it would be so good to have more of your shots in a lovely album..."

I'd tell her your looking into an electronic frame so you can have all the photos on rotation as your running out of room to hang them. Then she can just turn up with a memory card of new photos for you to put on it.

Those are both great suggestions, thank you!

I'd just tell her straight. Unless she is not a nice person there is no reason for her to be upset or hurt. I wouldn't be. Maybe next time she takes a photo just tell that you love the photos but don't have space for A3 pictures.

We have this for school photos. We just add the new one each year at the front.

Have just one room maybe your daughter’s where you put the photos up. Then just gently ask her not to give you anymore of that size as you don’t have room

IKEA do a much cheaper version of the mylittledavinci frames. But yes keep rotating them.

NOTE - this is prob just me!

But i spent so much of my youth trying to not offend people and then mopping up the fall out. I was once given 15 jumbo teddies by then MIL for my daughters 1st birthday! Who has room for that many jumbo teddies! Spend 3 days and god knows how much money trying to put up shelves that would hold them off the floor and out of the way! Charity shops wont take them and the landlord charged me for the holes in the walls! I have been roped into holidays, catering whole events, organising proms! All costly, inconvenient, time consuming and frankly a piss take!

So now I just say no! I don't want our dead great aunts wind chimes, because its a shame to throw them out, I don't want to spend a week in a tent with 15 kids and no gin! I am not going to drive 3 hours because you lost your train ticket and you spent a fortune on a gig!

Some may say that makes me a bitch, I think that makes me sensible!

Your walls! Just tell her!

Can you ask her to give you smaller prints? Then you can take down the older ones and put them in an album. She probably doesn't mean for you to have them all up at the same time (I hope).

I second the photo book idea. If she is computer literate and creative she might enjoy creating them online. Maybe suggest a theme though (like, the first two years of DD’s life) or you could end up with a large number of photo books!

She does sound kind and well meaning though. There was a thread recently about a Mil who gave her son a cd containing 200 wedding photos, none of which featured the bride!

Thank you for all the excellent suggestions!

MIL is very well meaning, and would be mortified if she thought she'd made my life more difficult in any way. She's currently staying with us and is making us roast lamb for tea. She has also brought her own bedding to save me the extra washing! She's wonderful, which is why I'm keen not to upset her.

Piffle I think she does, my BIL and SIL have a big photo gallery and I expect she's thinking along those lines.

Oh my Proffesionalmum1 , 15 IS a bit excessive! Did she find some sort of teddy cash and carry?!

I'm not usually worried about saying no, and am actually very assertive. It's more about not hurting MIL than anything else.