How much do grand parents buy for grand children?

[Marne]

How much do your parent (children's grand parents) buy for their grand children at x-mas?

I often see on here people saying grand parents are buying dc * and ** and i always seem to feel a bit .

My mum spends around 5-8 pounds on the dd's for x-mas, i am very grateful (i'm not trying to sound ungrateful) but these are her only 2 grand children and she has no one else (other than her partner) to buy for, she's not that short of cash yet she hardly ever buys the dd's anything.

I know i'm probably going to get called 'ungrateful' but just wondered how much grand parents spent on your dc's?

My parents spend m ore on DS's than I do, which is nice but sometimes I want them to remember the great Christmas's we gave them, not my Mum and Dad.

My mum spoils all her 6 GC at Christmas and all year round She loves buying them clothes and shoes etc and it really helps us out too! She buys them a main present at Christmas (usually about £20) and quite a few bits and bobs too- and party outfits!

My dad spends about £10/£15 usually.

My PIL rarely spend more than £5-£10 on each child and never buy them stuff throughout the year and never buy them any clothes. They could easily afford too. They don't bother coming to see us much either despite us inviting them. their loss though.

My parents £15-£20, my in-laws I think a bit more as they tend to 'sneak' an extra present in there. (I try for a 1 present per child per set of grandparents).

Dh and I are quite control-freak about how much stuff the kids are given tbh (no toys outside birthdays and Christmas for instance). Having said that both sets of grandparents get round this in a variety of ways such as contributions to savings accounts, new clothes and buying new toys that live at their houses so actual presents are very much the icing on the cake.

OP maybe your mum just remembers 'her day' when kids had so much less. Or maybe she is quite well off cause she has saved and saved and is always worried about having no money (my mum's best friend is pretty much rolling in it but still buys cheap clothes, budget food etc not cause she is mean but cause she came from a poor family and can't loose the fear of not having enough). Anyway, I think trying to directly equate love/affection with money is tricky, so if she clearly loves your kids I wouldn't let the size of presents bother me.

My mother for the last 3 years has given my ds what my nephew doesnt want. This year its summer garden toys that are Too big to fit in nephews garden....cost her £10 in the sale in the summer. She tells me ever so cheerfully.
She spends money on nephew & niece all year round, and gets them big stuff for xmas n birthdays.
Its almost like ds doesnt belong to her and is nothing to do with her

She recently came back from holiday abroad, got neice n nephew all sorts of stuff (nephew 7 niece 6, ds 6) turned to me and said, well they dont have stuff for kids in Tenrefe, i will get ds somthing from town when i go next.......still waiting.

Ils do try, think they spend about £30 on him, he is their only gc. This i think is to make up for thoer lack of interest and time spent with him as they cant be arsed with him.

poor little bugger, i have to try to shield him and protect him from all of this.
I just stay away now and then he isnt exposed to it.
Dont get me started.......

My parents spent about £70 last year. So far they've spent £60 this year on ski coat and sallopettes for when we all go skiing in March. I know that they have also got him some bits for his stocking so probably another £20 or so.

They could afford to spend hundreds, but what is the point while DS is so little - he is only 17 months. Mum buys him bits of clothes through the year and also knits him lovely jumpers. They spent £1000 on his first birthday, but that was an investment, I think the sandpit they bought him was £30.

FIL spends about £40 I think, MIL and S-FIL spend about £20-25 but always think v.carefully about what they buy and discuss it with us to make sure it is something we think he will like and enjoy. MIL always buys DS clothes, she lives near an outlet village and is always on the look out for bargins for DS and our DNs - she is a shopaholic and it gives her a good excuse!

OrmIrian- they always ask what the dd's want, this year all the dd's wanted was a tea set from elc (for dd2) and dd1 wanted pig goes pop or another board game so only around 12.00 each (not a huge amount), i even went shopping with her but as soon as i show her anything over 10.00 she walks away (as if to say thats too much money).

FIL gives each of his GC 40.00 each (10 GC), my dad has a newish girlfriend who is a family friend (we are spending x-mas with them) and she has apparently spent a fortune as she has no small children in her family. So i'm not relly worried about them not getting much, i just with mum would put a little thought into what she buys them, it doesn't have to cost the earth but it would be nice if she bought the thing they actually wanted rather than tat.

If she didn't know what to buy then i would be happy for her to give cash for in their money boxes.

MIL and Step FIL spend approx £50 on each grandchild (SFIL doesn't have any of his own).There are our 2 Dses and BILs 2 Dses.

FIL and Step MIL - £10 each, just on our 2, BILs children don't get anything.
When SIL (DH's 1/2 sister)has a child, I fully expect that to drop to £0.

My mum and step dad - about £20. They don't have a lot of spare cash, and they also have DBs children to buy for as well.
I have a stepsister bitch and step dad gives her child a present, but don't know how much

FIL & MIL give each dc £100 and then some small gifts - I guess about £30 of pressies each. They are very generous.

My mum gives each child a PO savings bond and a gift of about £25. Step-father gets a gift for each child for about £25.

We are very lucky and very grateful.

Oh I see. That is a bit mean I must admit

My parents usually spend £120-£150 on ds (only grandchild), my grandad gave me £100 to buy something for him too (only great-grandchild). They are all well off thouhgh.

Dh's mum will probably spend abou £20-£30, but she is by herself, only on a small pension, and has 7 grandkids to buy for.

Tis the thought that counts, although I am very that at 2.5 ds is probably going to have £400 worth of presents this xmas.

But how do you know how much everyone spends?

Well MIL tells us. She makes a point of comparing what her and SFIL have bought and compares it with what FIL and SMIL have bought.
SMIL usually says they are skint and spending £10 on the DSes.
My mum, well I guess, she never actually says.

Ours around £20 and usually another £50 in the bank for later. £20 is fine - too much in fact. We suggested some presents, but these presents didn't come up to the required spend and they were on the phone for more ideas!

my parent sreally spoil dd, probably spend about £250+ - it is their choice and they can easily afford it. last year the ils sent a dvd of the wiggles they had got free with a newspaper - the postage from australia was the only effort they went to.

My mum always asks what the dc want. So this year ds1 is getting a dart board (£16), ds2 a marble run (think it was £30, will have to find the receipt) and dd wanted dolls clothes (£6). The only nuisance is that my mum asks me to buy it all and wrap it up and she justs sticks on the gift card, and gives me a cheque for what I spent.

pil on the other hand spend loads (not sure how much but they often use the Letterbox catalogue so I've seen a lot of the stuff. Unfortunately they don't ask what the dc are into, and as we only see gp once or twice a year, they really have no idea what is appropriate.

So I am always reasonably confident that the thoughtfully chosen (cheap, on the whole) presents from my parents will be much more appreciated than the expensive stuff from pil.

ds2 got a pirate ship from them last Christmas. It was a beautiful £100+ one. But we had got him, second hand, the PLaymobil pirate ship for his birthday a matter of weeks earlier. He was very disappointed, and it could have easily been avoided.

I spend about £50 on presents then a couple of books and an assortment of stocking fillers + some new pyjamas for Christmas Eve.
I have 9 in total and we save all year for it as we are both retired.One exception this year was dss and family-we bought a new computer between whole family-3 dcs and their parents.The children have got only stockings and pyjamas on top.

My parents spend about £15 per grandchild. I don't have a problem with that but they always buy stuff that is unsuitable and doesn't get played with, so it seems a real waste of their money.

MIL (who is loaded) is spending nothing at all on my dcs this year. Apparently children today have too much stuff and she is taking a stand. But she's bought lots of stuff (new Clarks shoes and gifts) for her other grandchildren - approx £50 each (4 children) I'd guess.

Inlaws have spent about £50 on each
my parents about £30 on each

About £20-30 from my parents, generally £20 and my MIL who's on a state pension spends about £10. She does well on charity shop and car boot bargains though and the kids love her gifts. I do get a bit at the ammount some grand parents spend and how they buy what I consider 'main' presents that only a parent should buy like a bike or computer. I'd feel a bit cheated if my parents bought my kids that amazing big gift and I couldn't have the pleasure.

MIL- 40euro per kid, she has 6 DGS, FIL will buy some lego or books for the over 5's, he "doesn't do babies".

My Mum about £20.00 each child she has 6 GC altogether and is a pensioner

My Dad and stepmum about £30 per child again has 6 GC and has it will drop next year when they retire.

MIL spends £50 on her other 4 GC and then our 3 spends the grand total,of a free £10 argos voucher which she got free. The reason being is that are 3 are adopted and aren't related to her by blood!!!. Makes my blood boil so i buy something and pretend it is from them.

Still we don't go and see them that often due to their ignorance.

I actually tell my parents to restrain themselves. As I'm an only child, my two are their only GC so they are spoiled all year round with gifts, clothing, etc. They are extremely generous and gift the children money for their savings AND a gift to open for their birthdays and christmas. On DH's side, he has siblings so it is very different. Perceived 'inequality' of presents whether in quality or value is a minefield. It's definitely not worth being too irritated/hurt on behalf of your own children (yeah, I know it's easier said than done).

i am so envious, my mum doesnt spend anything on my children as she is skint, and has been for the last 20 yrs.

She does manage to spend on my brothers child though, who is six, but since i have four, they cant have anything as she can not possibly buy for everyone

My eldest is 21 and my youngest is 10 and it hurts me so much knowing my children get left out, and too make it worse, my ex husband dont buy for them either as he has a "new" family now ( her children) so my kids dont count.

My MIL buys presents in the boxing day sale and squirrels them away for 12 months so although DS gets lots of expensive -looking things, they were bought at half price, but she is incredibly generous(and very well off) and still spends about £200 on him and we get lovely treats too!!

She never asks what he wants, but always manages to get it spot on, though i think my sister-in-law had a lot to do with it, as she said yesterday that things were "delivered from that inter computer net thingy". My sister in law also does the same for DS.

My mum spends about £50, which is fantastic as shes not got much, but is a lot more generous with her time and love!

My dad spends about £20 because my stepmum thinks "kids are spoilt rotten these days"!

I have one child as does my sister. I would say my parents spend at least £150 on each gc, at least. My parents have always been big on christmas in a very over the top way - even when I was little and they didn't have much money there was always a huge mound of presents ... somehow.

dp's parents spend very little, possibly £20 but they live on the other side of the world and are less well off than my parents. They have never been big on presents according to dp. This is fine with me.

dp does have issues with the amount of presents my family give out (not necessarily the money spent but literally the number of presents). It "ruins" his christmas because "christmas is about family, not presents". My mum loves buying lots of little things, it really makes her happy.

I now feel embarrassed about the huge mound under the tree come christmas morning but of course could not for one moment contemplate upsetting my mum.

Of course the way round this would be to ask for one or two biggish things for dd (we do lists) but that wouldn't work either as mum buys throughout the year (that's part of the enjoyment for her) so would end up with more!

Is anyone else in the same boat/found solution? It's got to the point where I'm actually dreading christmas (sorry for hijacking)