I have mentioned at my personal blog that my mother is not well. Subsequently, she shops at one store: a small boutique with no discernible connection to reality where they sell children's clothing that is impractical and overpriced, and where they don't give refunds.
I watched my older sister suffer through birthday after birthday and Christmas after Christmas, receiving clothes their kids would never wear. She tried to explain to my mother that she was willing to do the shopping - and how that would yield more bounty at another store such as Old Navy (not to mention more practical stuff). I always thought she was being ungrateful.
Then, my mother found out my wife was pregnant. And she bought sleepers. Lots and lots of expensive, exceptionally cute, gender-neutral sleepers (that we will use again with our second). And once my daughter was born, she bought cute little outfits that made my kid the best dressed infant in playgroup (according to the other moms).
The problems started when my daughter became mobile. Suddenly, what was cute and sweet was now impractical and a nuissance. We tried (like my sister) to explain this to my mother, but she refused to listen. She just bought and bought, and while her generosity was appreciated, her stance of it being her right to buy the clothes started to become problematic. She not only believed she was supposed to buy the clothes, but that we were under some obligation to dress my daughter in them.
Finally, we had a long (and emotional) talk about the situation. We tried to explain, to illustrate the impracticality of the clothes, to show how much more economical she could be (and therefore possibly, you know, contribute to the education savings instead of blowing hundreds of dollars on dresses my kid will wear once), and it seems to have worked. Now, my wife does the majority of the shopping after running the ideas by my mother. Sure, we still get the occasional butt-ugly overpriced dress that we loathe, but it's gotten a lot better.
This post has been prepared as part of the Parent Bloggers Network blog blast entitled Grandma Needs a Gift Consultant on behalf of Grandkids Gift Guide, an online shopping resource for grandparents. (Too bad my mother doesn't use the internet. Wait. Nevermind. If she used the internet, then she'd be reading this.)
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I used to go shopping with my mother and take her to the consignment shops. She was convinced when we found lovely dresses at less than a third of the price they'd cost new. Good luck!
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