to be annoyed at MIL for buying us so much stuff?

[bigbumhole]

I don't want to come across as being ungrateful, but MIL keeps buying our DC so much bloody toys, games and clothes, were its actually getting to the point of it being a bit silly.

Our DC are newborn and 2yrs old, and on avreage she spends about £100 a week on them. We live in a tiny terraced house and we just DON'T have the room for any more stuff, we are literally bulging at the seams as it is!

Ok, now the 2 main things that annoy me are.....

I've asked her on several occasions to please stop buying the kids so much stuff as we cant find room for it all, plus she really cant afford to be spending that amount of money on us, but she seems to be in some sort of odd competition and wants to prove that SHE is the better grandparent (by buying us all this stuff), which is just daft.

Secondly, she buys our newborn (who was 8lb born) tiny clothes for premature babies, so we cant even use them at least once, and our 2yrs old gets clothing for age 5-6 plus. I keep pointing this out to her (all the time) but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

What can i do?! Its come to the point now where its really annoying me, and every time we go there (every Saturday) we come home with a boot full of stuff (yes, the boot is actually full to the point i have to sit on it to shut it)

As a result the house is always a constant mess with boxes of toys everywhere and boxes of clothing. Our attic is full and so is the garden shed (with all this stuff!)

I am really reluctant to give this stuff away as its nice and very expensive clothing (Monsoon, Gap, baby boutique shops etc) and brand new toys. She once bought a coat from a baby boutique shop for £64.99!

Am i being unreasonable to be getting so pee'd off with her constant buying to the point i actually DREAD going there?

PS MIL rang last night to tell us to empty our boot before we come up on Saturday as she has some "presents for the kids"

ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!

And she does buy for the sake of it - she once bought me a housecoat...it was nylon, shocking pink and had ruffles down the front. I didn't even know what to do with it, and took it to the charity shop. I think they burnt it. It must have cost money tho.

I also have the same MIL. I keep asking her not to buy so much stuff - we have loads and tbh the things she buys are not to our taste. She continues to do it and every time she visits she brings an extra case full of things for DS. Even he got jaded at Christmas by the amount of presents he had to open. It almost feels like she is competing with us. And to top it all, she doesn't work due to ill health so we send her money every month, which she obviously spends on DS.

havent read other posts, just the OP's post. In your situation - would do 1 or 2 things.

Firstly -all the stuff that is unusable - store at hers. And take it as you need it.

Secondly - if she is intent on spending the money, why dont you suggest that she puts into a bank account for your DC's so that it can be used towards future expenses, i.e. education etc.

If neither works - then i do think you are being a tiny bit unreasonable. Annoying though it may be - you cannot fault her for her intent - she obviously loves and dotes on your DC's very much.

Can you have a clear out of all the stuff she's bought that you can't now take back and take it to her in bag fulls and say something like (in a concerned voice) you were so kind to buy all this stuff but we've never been able to use any of it, so I thought I'd better return it to you so you can take it to the charity shops you prefer / give to somebody else as I would hate to waste your money? then whenever she gives something new, second what's already been said about not taking it away, just say you'll never get the chance to use it as already have too much in that size.

And do take away the stuff you can return to the store and get something useful with - you might be grateful of her generosity when it gets to the stage of them wanting expensive trainers etc. you can hint heavily about???

Can you show her at the time that the clothes don't fit and just refuse to take them away with you?

Something along the lines of 'how lovely, but what a shame they don't fit'.

Thank you for all your replies, i have read each of your posts and taken it all on board.

Some of you made an interesting point of her not being all that good with kids, it made me think a bit, as everytime we go there, she makes us a sandwhich then she'll sit and watch TV and totally ignore the kids, then as we leave she always goes on about not seeing the kids enough and how its all so very unfair for her?!

ask her to put the money in an account to pay for their education/university/first house as that would be of more benefit to them.