There's no way of stopping this is there?

Ummm....ebay or charity shop!

i could maybe cope with the dress for a few minutes, but the tracksuit is slightly revolting!!! nice thought though.

I once saw toddler tracksuit bottoms with 'sexy' written on the bum!!! awful!!

I have occasionally used the excuse " he was wearing x,y,z that you bought - but he threw up just as we were leaving and I had to change him!"

I feel your pain MQ

I will for purposes of Hitched take a photo of Molly in the knitted bonnet my MIL brought her (and suggests she wears ALL THE TIME!) and show you all later.  We got round the issue by telling her how much we love ASDA clothes where she shops, she has brought her some lovely stuff from there but anything I don't like I just take back and change telling her it doesn't fit.

OH entire family think Molly should be dressed in pink frilly taffita style dresses and do not get me started on ear piercing and gold jewellery

My mil would buy some truly shocking things (one dress (0-3 months) was denim, had a pink checked underskit & frills everywhere & a matching hat & looked like some mini cowgirl outfit!!!). I thanked her politely & never put J in them. (Havign said that, if they weren't toooooo awful & we weren't going out in public, I might have put her in them when mil came for a visit )

i then took a whole bag of, essentially brand new clothes round to my friend when she had a baby girl & said she could pick what she wanted & stick the rest in the charity shop (pointed out that I wouldn't be offended if she didn't want any of it). She actually kept that cowgirl dress for her daughter , so there we go!

My mother is obsessed with "bargains" and will buy any old tat for my 2 as long as it's cheap.  Either charity shop, market stall or factory shops.  She absolutely loves rummaging through cheap clothes for what she considers a bargain, buying them and then telling me exactly how cheap they were and what a good deal she got.  Trouble is, most the stuff she buys is hideous, tatty, too small or just the wrong size for the season.  So, the majority of it ends up going straight into the charity bag. 

Last time she turned up with a flourescant orange fleece and dungarees (both boys) for my 4 month old daughter that she found in a charity shop, because I've told her I don't really like pink.  She was so pleased with her bargains and convinced I'd love them because they weren't pink.  Trouble is, I have a 2 year old son and ALL his clothes are still stored in the attic, which she knows.  So, if I really wanted to put my daughter in boys clothing, I have bags of it to choose from.  

I've tried hinting that I'd rather she save her money and perhaps buy a decent outfit occasionally rather than the rubbish she buys regularly.  But I don't want to seem ungrateful as her heart is in the right place.

She does the same to my SIL - always buying her daughter tat and making a huge point of announcing how cheap it was!!

Im afriad to say, no there is absolutely no way of stopping it.

My MIL buys the most god awful, cheap nasty stuff for N. She has never sent her anything just "because".... she lives 5hrs drive away and has never bothered to come and visit her grandaughter except when she was first born..... she brought with her a small amount of clothes from cheapie places, and a teddy with no tags.....hmmmm

Christmas she sent a dress from TESCO and some crappy musical toy....

Grin and bear it

my mother is the cuprit in our case.  She has sent some awful stuff for Eleanor.  I posted an one of them on here and got shot down for being an ungrateful cow! 

she still hasn't learnt and this is even after the red top she bought eleanor in tenerife which wasn't cheap but she's worn it once and everything she touched turned red as all the dye rubbed off it.  The highchair has never recovered.

I've even tried the blatent that's hideous/ the wrong size/ do you have the receipt and get met with i thought she'd look lovely in that.  Umm well if it was the next size up then maybe but it's too small.

The MIL hands me stuff from next/ m&S etc with the line the receipts in the bag!  I've only taken back one thing she'd bought because we'd also bought E the same outfit!

butterflygirl:

Christmas she sent a dress from TESCO and some crappy musical toy....

Tesco - is that so bad?  I don't care where the stuff comes from, my issue is whether it's ugly as sin or not!  I'm quite happy to buy things from Tesco for R, or buy presents for other children there <shrugs>  In fact, I'd rather MIL did buy the not-until-hell-freezes-over stuff in there, cheaply.  Instead some of the things (the worst offenders in fact) have come from a "boutique" and have been quite costly.  Even if she did leave the tags on, I couldn't exchange them though - because I've yet to see a single thing in that "boutique" that doesn't make me want to or

I don't see the problem with Tesco either, I've got some lovely bits for G from there and from Sainsbug's too - they're only in them such a short time it's silly to spend loads.

As long as it's nice I don't care where it comes from.

I am the same, not worried where mil buys things as long as they are not hideous! Seriously I will start a photo thread tonight with the knitted bonnet!

Ilike tesco stuff too, I think it is usually very cute and not naff, in our branch anyway. (my FIL bought our kids nothing for Christmas, so am slightly jealous )

What about telling her your LO is a slightly awkward size and many of the clothes don't fit so it would be best to stick to x, y and z shops as you know the stuff there fits? (may only work when you LO is older though!)

I had a few disaster outfits from my mum & dad when Holly was little.  Now I just say "I've found this for Holly / Charlotte" and my mum will happily send the money instead.  I would tactfully say that you're not too keen on some of the things, and would rather that they gave you the money instead so you can get something you really like for them.

My mum & dad were actually grateful

My mum is the culprit in our family.  She has bought Iz some truly horrendous outfits.  One of the worst was an Andy Pandy style dungeress in almost florencent organge check.  She has bought bean a bright blue mickey mouse velour sleep suit that he will never wear.