hi, interesting topic, i think if they really want to buy/contribute something then it should be to ur taste/needs, although within a set budget, iyswim? i don't like when people say they want to buy, u choose and then they say its too much, they should give the budget first so u know what ur dealing with, and then know if u can/need to top it up urself. my mum has a habit of offering to pay for things, but, it will eb what she thinks is best and always the cheapest possible version she can find, and 9 times out of ten its soemthing completely useless. my MIL bought us our double pram, the pram we wanted for the money she could afford, now my mum reckons it's too big for her boot (even though its smaller than ds's single, which always fit just fine???, basically she's got the a*se cos she feels out done by MIL) so she wants to buy a cheap double side by side stroller so that when the new baby arrives we can all go out in her car...now one, we already have a perfectly good pram that fits in her boot-she's just being stubborn, two, i'm not putting a newborn in an umbrella fold stroller, the whole reason we got the pram we have is because she will be going in a carrycot, a must for me, three, we can't all fit in her acr anyway, she has a 5 seat fiat stilo, her+herOH+me+OH, plus 2 kids = 6 people, 2 of which will be in bulky carseats, and four, in tha last 17months since ds was born we've all gone out a total of ONCE. i acn't see why she can't buy/chip into something thats actually useful to us rather than buying tat that we don't need or want. ie, we really want a crib for this lo so she can reach sixmonths and hoepfully be sleeping through before she needs to share with ds, so my mum has been on the look out for a second hand swinging crib, now i don't ahve a problem with second hand, but we don't want a swinging one, her moses doesn't swing and neither oes her cot, so to us it woudln't make sense to ahve a swinging one, especially as we managed without rocking ds, and a stationary one new is the same price as all the swinging ones she's been looking at, so why can't she just buy the one we want, it's no more money? typical of her though, she bought us a change table with ds, i always said i didn't one, but she ignored me, so now we have a change table takling up room that we don't really have just to keep her happy, even with an em c sec its been used all of about 3 times...i've tried talking to her nicely about it, just mentioning that could she please consult with us before buying anything as there are things we have our eye on and we knwo what we wnat and if she really wants to contribute it would be handy if it actually was on siomething that would be handy for us/somehting we need, but all i egt in repsonse is 'well i just won't bother at all then'...argh, and then two weeks later she starts again. any tips??? oh and ds has a cotbed at my mums that we bought when we were expecting him, but then she bought us a cot, because its better? not sure how as he still now needs to go into the cotbed as the cot is getting a bit short, but now i keep asking can she bring round the cotbed so we can sort out his room and get him used to having his new cotbed and having his soon to be sister's cot in there etc well before she arrives, she keeps making lame excuses and then says she's been looking for a toddler bed for him...he'll only be 20months when dd arrives so will most likely still need the sides up, why does she need to buy him a toddler bed, when we've got a pefrectly good cotbed for him? why, why , why?
sorry for the rant, was only going to be a quick response but got a bit carried away lol.