That my in laws have been a bit dickish?

[sallyminibini]

In laws live somewhere that is considerably cheaper than where we live - houses are 40-50% cheaper.
We have been stung by COL and briefly considered moving there, looked at a few houses as we could get a lot more more our money but DH decided against it as while I wfh and he could get the same job he does there, he wouldn't work in as nice a place.
Well they came down in April and announced they'd bought the house we were looking at if we moved, the exact same one. And made a massive deal of it too. Didn't even ask how we were before they launched into it.
They have constantly put our house down over the past few years and also constantly told us how much better SIL house up there is and how much more money they have (they have lower paying jobs but in laws have provided all their free childcare while we have paid for nursery as no alternative).
AIBU to think this is really weird? To compete with your own child?

YANBU. Of course your SIL is going to have more money if she’s had free childcare provided to her. As you know not everyone has that luxury. It’s things like this that just breeds resentment.

Thank you. I massively resent them now.
I cannot imagine behaving this way to my own child.

Ils used to compare us. Sil had 6 dc raised for free by her dps.. We had a flat. Sil had a huge town house...
I didn't work as we had 4 small dc. Our choice. We didn't rely on anyone. Oddly sil's left home ASAP and don't even see their dgps.

What bothers me most is DH doesn't see it or rather chooses not to.
I have a sibling, my parents have never compared us (and her DH is a high earner).
They can't provide childcare but have helped us sort things in the house and provide support in other ways.
I just don't know how to deal with this other than not see them.

He's probably had it growing up his whole life so he doesn't see it and sees it as normal which is actually really sad.

If you told them you weren’t interested in the house, then they bought it, I don’t see a big problem.

But you aren't moving..... so I don't see the issue. There are presumably other houses if you did decide to move.

Another one who doesn’t really see the issue… you’ve decided not to move, so why does it matter that they’ve bought the house? Presumably they liked it too?

Parents can be very strange!
DH and I had decent salaries, DH's sister married a lazy workshy man so they mostly lived on her smallish salary. If we booked a holiday or bought a new piece of furniture or something, MIL used to look disgusted, tut loudly and say "Sally and Bill (SIL & BIL) spend all their money on their car" which I took to mean they could do what you're doing but they don't want to.
I couldn't understand why she couldn't be happy for us. DH was never bothered, it was just how his mum was.

They were buying of a retirement bungalow due to health issues. They had seen one they wanted.
They only bought this house as it's the one we we more interested in. They will have to move in the near future anyway as FIL can barely manage stairs.

This is exactly what they are like.
We save for kids so of course SIL saves more for her kids. And so on.
It's very grating when every conversation turns into this theme.

In laws are long gone, but I always wish I'd said there's no need to compare, it's not a competition. I wonder how that would have gone down 😂

OP they sound awful. Poor DH living with that his whole life.
Ironically they probably run Sil down and praise you when they are with her.
Some people are never happy with their own lives and constantly try to pull others down into misery as well. Ca you go LC?