My SIL buys gifts for our DC, there’s two of them she buys for. She’s a high earner, living in a city a long way from us, she lives alone so doesn’t have any other children to buy for and is middle age. Therefore she is free to spend what she wishes, she might ask the type of thing they are in to but then gets whatever she wants. She also buys for me for my birthday and DH both for his birthday and Christmas. I’ve always said not to buy for me at all but she continues to do so. She buys really obscure, quirky things for DH that he throws on the side and never looks at again. I’ve told him to suggest something to her but he never does.
DH asked her what she would like for Christmas and she’s sent her suggestion. She’s added together her birthday and Christmas present and sent a link to something that is £200. I completely get that we should buy her something more because she buys for several of us, but we never agreed a price range, she just buys as she sees fit. £200 on one gift is an awful lot for us, I spend that on my parents who do childcare for us every week, we see SIL once every couple of years! We’ve got some big bills at the moment and could do without it all at once.
WWYD? Is it a reasonable request from her? Do we suck it up this year and next year push back and say well in advance we need to agree something?