[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by johnny: Yeah, just relax and have a beer.

Johnny is the man with the plan, as always.


On a more serious note, though, it sounds like you're doing what you can without being downright rude to your mom about it. If she gives you the response that she doesn't care what you say, she will buy what she wants to anyway. Your response can be exactly what you said here - "Fine, you buy what you want to. But don't bring it in the house. Just go ahead and put it in my car so I won't have to make an extra trip when I haul it off. You can buy them what you want and I can throw out what I want....OR....we can actually try to work together on this."

I have 3 kids who are the only grandkids in the area on either side (the only other grandchild on either side lives several states away). So they get spoiled by both sets of grandparents. We've discussed the issue with both sets of parents and mine have agreed to cut down on what they buy. It also helps that, since my mom retired, she has been coming to our house once a week to help us clean and catch up on laundry/dishes/etc. So she sees the toys scattered all over the house and knows how long it takes to pick all of them up and put them back where they belong.

My wife and I also agreed that - with 3 kids - we simply have to cut down on how many toys each of them get for Christmas. First of all, we can't afford a bunch of gifts for each kid. Secondly, we simply don't have any room for anything else. We clean out their toy room on a regular basis as it is. I filled the back of the van up about 3 weeks ago and carried off probably 3 trash bags full of toys (several were just small miscellaneos things they no longer play with). I had to do that just to make room for the stuff I knew they would get for Christmas. Now I'm already looking at their new stuff to see what will be culled and carried off on the next trip.

My wife's mom still goes overboard and buys them too much stuff. Simple solution...leave it all at HER house for them to play with THERE. It doesn't sound like your parents live that close, but if they live close enough for the kids to visit regularly, then pack up a bunch of the stuff and send it over there. If they refuse (your mom especially) and say they don't want that stuff at THEIR house, say "Guess what? NEITHER DO I!!!"

Don't know if that helps or not. If not, you could simply try yelling and screaming at the top of your lungs and maybe break a couple of things in the process. [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img] At least then, they will know how you feel about it.