So...not wishing to sound ungrateful or anything, but what can we do with all the shite that MIL is apparently buying ds for Xmas?

[theSuburbanDryad]

MIL phoned dh this morning from a Woolworths, where they've reduced everything down to absurdly low prices, and asked if ds likes Thomas or Night Garden best. I'm glad I didn't speak to her because I would have screamed down the phone at her! We have asked her (several times) not to buy him any more stuff, our house looks like a fecking toy shop anyway and he doesn't need anymore toys! Also, it winds me up to a massive degree because she whinges on and on about how skint they (the IL's) are and then goes and spends absurd amounts of money on plastic shit we've asked her not to buy - it's infuriating!

And yes, I know he's her only grandchild and she wants him to have nice stuff, and we should be grateful that she's taking an interest and Aren't We Lucky that we have family who want to be involved in their grandchildren's lives but REALLY there is NO NEED for ds to have 15 plastic Thomas toys or a Night Garden obstacle course we have no space for.

I don't really want to Freecycle/charity shop them, I was thinking of perhaps a children's ward or something? Does anyone know how I go about this?

This would annoy me too - I can't stand swathes of plastic shite. Children's ward sounds like a good idea, I would contact your local hospital and ask if they would like a donation. Also a children's hospice, if you have one near you?

I was also thinking about a woman's refuge? They often need donations of clothes and toys - she often buys clothes that I would never put ds in (t-shirts with slogans like "Born Naughty" on them etc ) but some people might like. I tend to palm those off on charity shops at the moment though.

My mother is the same. She also insists on buying dd weird looking ornaments from her travels.

The trouble is, she has such a passive/aggressive thing going on, that if I said to her, "Look, it's very lovely that you've bought all this stuff, but we didn't ask for it and we don't want it, so I'm donating it to Great Ormond Street" (or wherever) she would get terribly offended and refuse to speak to us ever again. Which now I think about it might not be such a bad thing, but would stress dh out terribly and really upset ds not to see Granny so I suppose I'd better keep the peace.

It really winds me up. If she wants to spend money on him , why can't she put it in his savings account?!?!?!?!?!

AAAARARARARARARARARGH!

Don't tell her.
Put it discreetly to one side before opened or messed with and pass onto
-local Surestart project
-charity shop
-women's refuge
-council (ours has a present giving scheme for underprivileged kids)

Or Ebay it and put the money in an account.

Message withdrawn

Ooooh good idea about eBay. But it is a faff!

I know she'll be 10x worse with dc2.

I feel your pain TSD. My parents have given my two an obscene amout of money for Christmas and sent a box full of plastic crap. She quizzes me almost daily about what I have used the money to buy them - I can't say I haven't yet as she would find it shocking the same with putting the money in their savings account. The money is in their savings account but she doesn't know that and i have just picked a couple of presents that we (or FC) have already bought and pretended to her that these are what we have bought with the money.

I put aside well over 60% of what my kids got last year without them even noticing 9and we are a family who don't even buy lots of presents.)

bloss - it's the way we've told her 10,000 times not to buy cheap plastic tat for ds because he Doesn't Need it and he Won't Play With It (he loves his toy kitchen and a cardboard box atm) and she goes and buys it anyway and then (and this is the icing on the cake for me) whinges about not having any money - like it's our fault - when she's spent all her money on shite for ds!!!

She is Very Irritating, trust me. And ds would love whatever she did, cause she stuffs him full of chocolate and cake whenever he sees her! (Which I selflessly do not complain about! )

MIL's eh, where would you be without them? TG ours live across the water and as we are going for Chrismas I can only imagine the amount of presents that will be under the tree. It's going to be effing ridiculous. I already have a coldsore from the stress of it. I know that's ridiculous but I would really love not to be going and am biting my tongue as DH is the best in the world and his parents aren't really that bad. His dad just never shuts up and its a monotone and his mother is uber obsessed with dd so I wont get a look in for the duration. I'm planning on taking to the bed (pregnant with number 2 so have an excuse).

Was wondering what to do with all the tat toys and giving them to a childrens hospital, womens refuge is a fantastic idea.

I've asked for nice books and money as we cant bring much back (thank god) but it's going to take her all day to open the amount of presents she will be bought.

Dont want to hear a word from the you should be grateful brigade. It's different strokes for different strokes and she drives me mental. She comes to watch the nappy change ffs so she doesnt miss out on a minute with dd. Sweet if you love that sort of thing, I like my personal space.

Go for it SD, get rid of the lot