mookie said:
Okay, I guess that is being harsh. But I swear it happens every year. DH mom is very generous at Xmas. I mean VERY generous. At least 1,000 on each grandchild. There has been many talk about how hard it is to teach your child values when "Mimi" is always buying gifts at the drop of a hat. When DH and I went on vacation a few weeks ago, DD got over 200.00 worth of stuff while she stayed there!!!! (She was only there 4 days!!) So, you can imagine how Xmas is...
Anyway, back to my point. Every year, my MIL starts shopping early. She swoops up everything that she possibly can for these kids that's in their age group. The tough part is that it leaves my mom and even us without anything to get our kids!! My dd is now starting to finally "get" Santa. She's been really excited about making a list, etc. Well, MIL asked "what is Maddie asking Santa for Xmas this year?" Guess what?!!?! DH told her!!! You guessed it, she then went out and bought everything. This would be nice if she then gave it to us or to "santa." But she keeps it for herself, and says it's all from her!!!
I swear MIL might as well be Santa Claus. Nobody else can even touch her, and the kids get more stuff there then they do from Santa, because Santa has nothing left to give them..."mimi" has swallowed it all up.
Okay, just had to vent...I should be used to this by now, but it still irks me every year. And no matter how many times we say something to her, she never listens.
Hi Mookie
I didn't have a chance to read everyone's replies. I think someone posted about exchanging MILs? I would love to do that,too, but with my mom
Mookie, I would consider yourself blessed!! Really!
My side of the family and dh's family is totally the opposite. They don't like to spend money on gifts- period! The kids get a small amt. of toys from both sides of the family, but not much. My mom likes buying a couple of outfits of clothing for the kids for x-mas. Both sides of hte family are pretty frugal,as of gifts, etc. DH and I ARE Santa to our kids, we buy the more expensive toys, ie. Game Cube games, Nintendo DS games, etc. We cannot ask my parents or Dh's side to buy these type of things b/c they don't want to buy that sort of games, they say it's too expensive!! Ok a vent coming......
About almost 3yrs ago, on New Years Day 2004, My mom calls and wants to talk to the kids. She tells both my kids on hte phone(I'm listening on the other phone) that she wants to take them to Disneyworld! My kids all got excited. Well, I get my kids off hte phone and ask my mom, "you are actually treating all 4 of us to WDW"? She said," Oh, only maybe $100 of it, you have to pay the rest on your own"!!!
I said,"mom, why are you giving the kids and us false hopes if you can't pay for most of it"? She said, " I didn't mean they are going this yr, I meant maybe 10 yrs down the road"!
I said," mom, don't tell the kids now, they think they are going now!"
Anyways, I was so furious with her, b/c she knew we couldn't afford to pay for the trip to WDW at that time on our own. DD was on social security disability benefits, based on DD's disability and income based. Anyways,to make a long story short, I racked my head for days to see what I can do to resolve this situation of false hopes from my mom
. I did a Google search on Make-A-Wish, b/c I didn't know much about MAW at the time. I referred my DD for MAW, and she did get accepted for a wish!! So, our wish(mostly DD's wish) was to go to WDW!! We went in June 2004.
Anyways, Mookie, consider yourself BLESSED you have a family member that loves to spoil your kids and follows through!