Weird present buying behaviour

[MajesticWhine]

MIL sent me photos of presents she has bought for my DC to see if I think they are ok. She also waits for DH to say, oh we bought DD3 this toy (or whatever) and then says oh can we give that to her? And also everything has to be exactly even between children down to the last £.
Can anyone beat that?

Given the way some MNers carry on about their MILs, she probably feels she's exercising proper protocol! Has she been on MN?

The picture taking I can understand. My mum and I often semd each other pictures and links to what we have bought for DS and other family members, I like to have her opinion and it's good to know we wont double up.

The "oh can we give her that?" is a bit odd though, why does she think she should give her things you have bought?

She finds it difficult to buy something suitable maybe, so it's easier to hijack our presents. She then gives us a cheque. I think she's being a bit lazy.

Depends on the relationship you have with her. I just bought way too many presents for the DC as I kept spotting bargains, mentioned it to DM who was stressed about not having enough time for shopping, and she asked if she could buy something from us to give to DS. Perfect. It would be slightly odd if we'd bought one thing, told her it was one of the DC's perfect presents and she'd asked if she could give that, though.

I get that from mil- she rang me on Christmas Eve last year and asked for a present from my pile for around £10 that she could give to dd2. She is crazy about everything being fair are you sil?? she means no harm, I think she had bad experiences from her mil and wants to make sure it's not repeated

I don't think that's odd at all, i think she's being very fair, considerate and thoughtful. You should consider yourself lucky that you have a mil who actually cares about her grandchildren, there's plenty who dont, instead of coming on here and bitching about her! My mil is exactly the same and I'm very grateful that my children get such lovely thoughtful gifts from her and that she's done it fairly. No one feels left out. I appreciate her and her slightly quirky ways.

I never like to beat them because I think he want to give the gifts that you like and little bit showing to others. It is really a weird present buying behavior.

My mil will steal my present ideas. One year I was planning to get my nephew a scooter. I made the mistake of showing her online the one I was going to get. She went and got it for herself to give him.
This years I've been vaguely mysterious about my shopping.

I think the way my ILs buy gifts is odd - buy random stuff they see all year in sales, car boots, charity shops etc, stick it all in a cupboard and then try to work out in December to whom they can give each item. Nothing is bought with anyone specific in mind.