how much do your parents buy your kids at Christmas?

[sugarbaby]

Today my mother came round to drop off some cards and I casually asked her if she had finished her Christmas shopping. She replied that she only had a few things left to buy but that her living room was full of presents, and that they are all for my DS and my nephew. I asked how much she had bought, to which she rattled off a long list of things she had bought for each of them! She must have bought them upwards of 15 presents each and I would like to bet she's spent probably between £150/£200 on each child! Now I realize that grandparents wish to indulge their grandchildren but isn't this just a bit extreme? i feel almost as if it's like an obsession with her! to see how much she can spend. Last year when I pointed out that perhaps she had spent enough on the kids she replied "how much is enough?".

So was wondering, am I the only one? or is there anyone else out there whose parents try to outdo you when it comes to buying presents for your own kids?

MIL and FIL way too much - they have 8
My mum sod all. She only has 2, but she is pretty good in other ways, she gives thema lot of herself.
Kids love both equally

My mum probably spends about £40 on each of her 6 grandchildren which adds up to quite a lot. But she asks what they would like and usually just gets one thing. For example this year she has bought:
my 20 month ds - shopping trolley and groceries from elc
my 3 month old nephew- cot mobile
my 2 year old nephew - easel
3 year old neice - leap-pad thing
10 year old nephew - Star Wars monopoly
12 year old neice - not sure, probably clothes
In-laws have bought my ds train set and his great-grandma has bought the station to go with it

Small gift from my MIL....about £10 each and them she invests money for them for later in life. I have never asked her how much.

I think this is v sensible as they have far too much to play with as it is

AHHHHH!!! Don't want to talk about.

MIL and FIL both dead. My Mum spends about £20 tops, which is what I've asked her to do - my Dad and step-Mum let me get something and pay me back, which amounts to the same. We're going to try and stick to small-ish presents for Christmas, especially as DD's birthday is on 22nd - and she's only 2.

My parents and inlaws buy our children one present each (although my mother has a habit of buying silly little odd things in addition to that) but if something expensive comes to mind, my parents happily buy that as they have far more money than dh and I ever will. So, for instance, this year, now that we have a garden big enough for it, my parents have bought our children a double swing for them to share, and something small each to unwrap on the day.

It is interesting to read that some grandparents smother their grandchildren with toys as our parents all seem to take the attitude that kids these days have far too much and try to give useful things rather than toys. Sometimes, that attitude goes to far too (IMO).

The previous comment is very interesting actually, considering my mother is one of the first to say that my DS has far too many toys, and yet on Christmas day she will arrive here with a massive sackload!

My MIL is far better though and generally buys 2/3 things

My parents will say they are buying one thing but buy a few bits more. They have 5 grandchilden and try to be really fair - difficult as we live overseas and the others are 5 mins away but they do OK. Only problem is my Dad cannot keep a secret - DS already knows that Grandad has bought him a Star Wars book!

MIL buys lots of rubbishy bits - which of course DS (4) loves. But she doesn't spend heaps of cash and is very hands on when she sees him - she taught REception for years and is completely doo-lally so on his wavelength! She is fab with time and patience.

now they're all getting older, my mum gives them £30 each for xmas. she has 9 grandchildren, so it's a bit much, but her choice i guess.

My parents spend £30 or so on each of their (3) grandchildren, and generally get what I suggest. They also put large amounts of money into their bank accounts for their birthdays.

Father in law spends £10 each, and gives with lots of love.

Mother in law will go mad and spend well over £100 each on my 2 - but has never sent even a card for their birthdays!

My grandmother still insists on buying presents for her 8 adult grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren, despite the fact that she is 85 and on a pension. We can't stop her without offending her.

I've just got used to the fact that everyone does things differently.

my parents 0 pounds (because they are JWs)
PILs about 20 pounds for each kid.

LOL Sparklym - I read that as 'because they are jew's' I thought Blimey, that's contoversial!

LOL!! They are Jehovah witnesses, (in case anyone else reads it wrong! )

Huge pile from my parents, huge pile from my brother. All of them will have been on special offer, as that is my mother's main way of choosing.

An example - today is my birthday. I never wear makeup. Maybe tonight I will wear tinted moisturiser and mascara to go out - but I probably won't. She bought me a 100 piece makeup brush set. Straight onto Ebay for that one I think. She doesn't wear makeup either.

MIL will buy bob 1 carefully chosen present.

One set spend about a fiver per child. As they have around 4 foreign hols a year it's a little stingy, but they do at least go to some trouble to shop, wrap and send the gifts. This is stepmothers influence, my own mother was much more generous to my (older) nieces & nephews. The other set usually give us £50 to buy something of our own choosing for the kids thus passing all the effort of choosing, shopping, wrapping etc. onto us. What's worse they never tell us until less than a week beforehand so early shopping or usually even internet shopping is impossible . Same applies for birthdays on both sides.

This year one set of in laws (who have seen ds once since he was born) bought him a berchet mini driver (one of those electric car things). £250 and he is 22 months old ffs. Took it back to John Lewis yesterday and have put the money in his savings account.

Both sets of grandparents go quite mad. They both have 3 granchildren ATM. DS (nearly 5), DD(19 months) and a younger cousin (14 months and 10 months) on each side. I would imagine that they would each spend £100+ on each grandchild.

Last year when DD was 7 months my Mum bought her 9 tops, mainly from Next, tights, two pairs of trousers, a cardigan, a peekablocks trolley, a wooden merrygoround thingy from Oxfam, a pullalong toy, several books, chocolate snowmen and other things that I can no longer remember. She was totally dwarved by this huge pile of presents, all of which I obviously had to open.

My parents spend around £40 on a shared present and £30-40 eaj on smaller things
My XIL's spend around £25-30 each.

My mom spends around £25 on each of my 3, and my dad spends about the same.

My dad usually puts together with my elder brother and gets them a big pressie.

I know my nan sends a tenner to each of my kids which is very much appreciated as there are 5 of them. What makes me though is that my brother lives a few streets away from her (we live about 70 miles away and don't see her hardly) and his 3 kids get at least double that amount spent on them, which I find really unfair.

Now, if it were you, would you say anyhting or carry on gritting your teeth?

My mother goes a little barmy when it comes to ds. Last year she bought him a trampoline because I complained that he was bouncing on the bed. I live in a 1st floor flat, I don't have the room and he ignores it and still bounces on the bed!!! I can guarantee that she has spent at least £100 on him. But first granchild syndrome as I call it!

I spend £20 - £30 on the 3 dgs - this year it's about £20, it would have been about £27 but a couple of things haven't arrived in time so they'll get them in the New Year when I go to visit.

The have oodles of toys already.

MIL get the kids loads of stuff all throughout the year, not just Christmas, but nothing you would ever want! I am so fed up with her crap books that cost 50p each just because she can't resist a bargain. I know it sounds horribly ungrateful, but we already have so much STUFF. The worst was an umbrella that she bought for DD (2) that was actually dangerous - the plastic covers all came off the spikes making it lethal! My dad ususally sends around £40 per child for Christmas so we can buy them something nice - nothing else during the year which suits me fine.

My dad buys a book; my mum buys one biggie at prob about £40; my pils about £40 i think but also a string of small things through the year.

i am already foreseeing trouble with Christmas and birthday presents (ds's birthday is 9 Jan) but will worry about that when he's old enough to notice.

IlanaK are you still there? How are you mixing Hanukkah and Christmas? I had the bright idea of decorating the Christmas tree with Hanukkah gelt but ds found out what the coins were made of and they immediately had to be removed! Otherwise we are planning to spread the presents he receives over 8 days (to be followed immediately by his birthday, groan) but otherwise I'm not sure.

apologies for hijack. ilanak i'll do another thread.