Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry OP. Your MIL seems a little off and probably showing some favoritism.

Is she by any chance very frugal? My grandma grew up very poor in the Great Depression and would give us gifts of things she had around the house. Some of them half used, never anything any of us kids actually wanted. She would save bows from gifts and reuse them. She was also just an off person with some mental issues. The open bag of marshmallows thing sounds like something she would have done.

Hell yeah, I do this too. Why throw away a perfectly good bow? I'm 42, have two little kids, and as far as I'm aware, still possess all of my faculties. I also save and reuse gift bags, unless they've been trashed or ripped or something.

+1. Except really I’ve just stopped using bows altogether. No need for that crap in landfills.

Doesn’t everyone reuse gift bags?

I have yet to meet a person IRL who doesn’t.

Cracking up about the gargoyle! It reminds me of a family we're friends with--the first time we visited their home, we noticed a large, tacky statue in the backyard of a stone woman who looked like Strega Nona. The statue wasn't displayed in the yard as if it was part of a planned landscaping. It was more dumped in the very back corner of the yard under a tree. It also matched the style of absolutely nothing else in their home.

I asked some neutral question about the statue, and it opened the floodgates. Come to find out, it was a gift from the husband's stepfather, they find it absolutely hideous, but every time he visits he looks for it and makes comments about how much he likes it and how much it cost. So they can't take it to the dump without causing serious offense. And it's too heavy to haul in and out of the shed repeatedly. So they just put it in as inconspicuous a place as possible (though it's impossible for such a statue to be inconspicuous) and pretend it's not there.

My dad and his wife gave me a $15 gift card along with a note saying it was to use toward the purchase of an instant pot, which they had and loved. Four years later I finally bought one, and I love it too!

I LOVE this thread. I haven't laughed so hard in ages. Thank you DCUM community! My contributions aren't particularly funny, but here goes:

My MIL has given me and DH a single paring knife (it was actually quite awesome, and we ended up buying more of the $6 knives on amazon). MIL makes AMAZING quilts. She asked me at least three times via email what colors I would like. I responded every.single.time, with the same colors. The fourth time she asked I asked my fiance (now DH) to please talk with her. I didn't know what else to do. She used completely different colors. I guess she didn't like the colors I like? We've received plenty of used books as gifts also, though I no longer think this is strange - they're perfectly legible.

Before I was married, my mom would give me gifts for my future children. She had other grandchildren, so would buy an extra set of board books, or what have you, when she picked one up for a grand child. My mom also asked each year to pick out pajamas that she can buy for me and DH to open on Christmas eve. I understand her wanting to do this for our kids. They grow and need new pajamas anyway. DH and I don't need new plaid flannel PJs every year.

I wonder what odd presents I'll end up giving someday....

Anonymous wrote:Ah yes, my mother is a terrible gift giver. She gives my children my old childhood toys or things she picked up from a neighborhood curb alert. Her gifts are always wrapped in used wrapping paper. And not used just once but multiple times. They’ll be 3 or 4 pieces of wrapping paper taped to a toy.
I just go with it but my oldest child is starting to pick up on the weirdness of it.
She also has hoarding tendencies and keeps buckets of water collected in the shower to water her plants.

Sounds like your mother actually cares about our environment and doesn't just waste money on useless crap.

Anonymous wrote:Oh, Lord. Sounds like my mother in law. She gives wonderful and costly gifts to her daughter, SIL, and kids.


Soccer goalie pants. None of us are soccer goalies. But she found them in a thrift store and thought that we could find someone in our neighborhood to give them to. I guess, go door-to-door with them??


I think she thinks she is precious and adorable. No idea.......

This seriously cracked me up!
Hear you on the coupons shit. Mine used to mail envelopes after envelopes of coupons for crap I wouldn't use even if Giant paid me! DH tried to talk her, time and time again, to no avail. She also thinks she's precious and adorable, btw.

When DH and I just got married, my MIL gave me a big huge bag of used hair scrunchies that reeked of hair saying that since she'd cut her hair short and mine was long, she didn't need those and wanted me to have them.
At first, I wasn't even sure what these were (I don't normally wear hair scrunchies despite having rather long hair, if anything, I'd use a thin elastics) so I mumbled my thankyous and put the bag into my purse. When I opened them at home, I was speechless. Tossed the bag right away.