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Mother-In-Law Stories
Worst Gift Archives
1/13/2001
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Worst gift:
I received slippers two sizes too small, with dangerously slippery plastic bottoms!!
1/12
        signed - Wear Them Yourself, MIL

Worst gift:
I'm just puzzled.  My grandparents in law are nice to me, and I think they like me.  But every year they give out money for Christmas, and they give my DH a huge sum ($1000!) and I get a few hundred.  This is very generous, but I can't help but wonder why they don't just write both of our names on the big check and not even give me a small one? (save themselves some money too!)  I mean, we are married.  I hope they don't really think it's "his" and "her" money!  DH even refers to it as "the money they gave US".  Anyway, I'm not complaining, it just makes me feel a little weird sometimes.
1/12
        signed - Puzzled Over The Money

Worst gift:
This isn't the worst gift, but still tells you that you are NOT a part of someone's family just cause you have their name now, or their children.  A couple years ago my MIL called my SIL (her other daughter in law) and told us that she hopes we didn't mind, but that she spoiled her boys this year and only got us a couple things.  She figured we would just be happy for them, I guess.  Well, we get to her home that Christmas, and our husband's got cordless drills, tool boxes, clothes, gift certificates to hardware stores, and my sister in law and I got each a gift certificate to a clothing store for $25.  Wow, thanks MA!  Makes us feel like we fit right in!
1/12
        signed - Part Of The Family? NOT!

Worst gift:
The worst gift I ever received was from my EX-mother-in-law from hell.  I received a plastic toilet bowl brush.  Merry Christmas.
1/11
        signed - Glad She Is The Ex-mother-in-law

Worst gift:
I received for Christmas a brush to do the dishes!!!
1/10
        signed - So fed up with her!!!!

Worst gift:
My mother-in-law, aka the BEAST, gave me bottle of diet pills for Christmas with a card that said, " good luck".
1/9
        signed - Not That Fat

RESPONSE:  Not That Fat
My God!  You have my sympathy.  Where do these people come from?  I guess you know what her birthday present will be:  the Miss Manners Guide to Etiquette.
1/10
RESPONSE:  Not that Fat
Here's an idea!  Give her a gift certificate to a beauty makeover counter and sign it GOOD LUCK!
1/10
RESPONSE:  Not That Fat
Ugh -- where do these people come from, I wonder?  My guess is, from oozing slime under a desert rock.  Well, I guess you better start shopping for that slimy woman's birthday gift: a Miss Manner's Guide to Etiquette book. (Get the paperback at a used book store or library for 50 cents.)  If you can't find that, look for Emily Post's etiquette.  If all else fails, recycle the pills and put them in a newly labeled box and tell her they're pills for women who are aging badly and want to retain their youth.  Okay, I'm just kidding about the last one.  Sort of.
1/10
RESPONSE:  Not that Fat
Your husband should have gotten up and said, "That is it.  You have insulted her for the last time, mother!  When, and IF, you can accept her for the beautiful person she is, we will return to being a part of this family.  I love you, but we are leaving!"  End of story.  Your husband needs to nip this in the bud RIGHT NOW!  Or you're in for a rough ride sweetie!  Good luck!
1/11
Worst gift:
MIL and FIL gave me a book this year.  As I was reading it, a smell started to permeate my personal space.  I recognized it was the smell from their moldy storage area!  And it wasn't an antique book!
1/6
        signed - Moldy Storage Area

RESPONSE:  Moldy Storage Area
Apparently, MILs and FILs think that if the book cover isn't ripped or stained that they can get away with giving it to some dimwitted DIL .  My in-laws gave us a copy of some old novel which they know we would never read.  I was kind of suspicious, and my worst thoughts were confirmed when my husband tried to read it, and out of it came a birthday card from their close family friend to my FIL noting this book as a present to him.  My BIL got a copy of a library book from them the previous year for his birthday, and thought the library police would find him; he returned it to the library book bin in the dead of night.
1/9
RESPONSE From Poster:  Moldy Storage Area
I did send a written Thank You note to those a-holes telling them how much I liked the book, and would they like to have it back to read.  I do intend to return it to them.  Leave it in their bathroom storage area where it was before I got it.
1/10
Worst gift:
I am a senior in high school.  While visiting my grandparents, I told them I was looking forward to going to college and being on my own.  This year for Christmas, my grandma gave me one washcloth.  It was from a department store and had a deer on it.  A set of them would have been fine, but just one?
12/29
        signed - Disappointed With Christmas

RESPONSE:  Disappointed with Xmas
One washcloth!  What cheap-a&&es!  I can't believe these people.  Don't take it personally - obviously they're the ones with the problem.  Just think of it this way, you don't have to waste any of your money on them in the future, nor do you have to bother with writing thank-you notes.  I would send the washcloth back next year with a note that all "good deeds" must be returned.
1/1
RESPONSE:  Disappointed With Christmas
Do your grandparents have money to spare, and did they give better presents to other grandkids?  Maybe that was all they could afford.  At least they remembered you.
1/8
RESPONSE:  Disappointed with Xmas
That above response sounds like my paternal grandparents could have written it. (They didn't.) That was their philosophy in a nutshell -- "You should be grateful for any crumbs we toss you."  They were the absolute epitome of cheap -- and yet, they managed to go on vacations 3 times a year, sometimes as far away as the Bahamas.  They were cheap with their own furniture and stuff too, just to be fair.  Not because they had no money, but because they were miserly Scrooges who thought they could take it with them.  Sorry, but I think even "poor" grandparents can afford more than a lousy washcloth.  After all, if they can afford rent or mortgage payments, and car payments and grocery and utility bills, there's no reason they couldn't get a thoughtful gift for their grandchild that is not necessarily expensive.  ONE WASHCLOTH!  Good God.  What, they couldn't afford the whole set?  Sorry, but unless these are homeless people living in someone's van down by the river, there's no way in hell they couldn't afford to give their grandchild a nicer present.  (Meaning, something that the granddaughter could use, like a certificate to a bookstore, or clothes, or even one of those coupon books.)

P. S. To the granddaughter: if this is any comfort (and it probably won't be), my grandparents blew off my birthday 3 years in a row.  And, the last time they ignored it they were right in the house celebrating it with the family!  How's that for gall?  I didn't even call them on it -- they were just too pathetic for words.  Plus, I thought even THEY wouldn't be so lame as to not follow up with a present at a later time, since my parents were fully aware of the situation.  Guess what?  They didn't, and my parents made EXCUSES for them.  You know, "old people forget," and stuff like that.  Arrrggh.  Gee, I wonder why people like to pull those stunts?  Is it because everyone else lets them get away with it?  Nahhh.
1/9
Worst gift:
I just received my Christmas gift from my "lovely" MIL.  She sent me a book titled "The Book of Moral Virtues: How to Bring Morality and Goodness Back Into Your Life."  Her implication, of course, is that I'm lacking morality.  I teach disadvantaged teenagers for a living, volunteer in my community, and practice kindness on a daily basis.  My MIL, on the other hand, has tried to destroy my marriage, worships material things, is racist, and has told her children nearly every day of their lives how worthless and incompetent they were.
12/23
        signed - Now Who Needs A Little Morality In Her Life?

RESPONSE:  Now Who Needs a Little Morality in Her Life?
What an idiot!  It must take a lot of patience on your part, to put up with her!
12/24
RESPONSE:  Now Who Needs a Little Morality in Her Life?
Sounds to me like you've been given the perfect "recycling" gift.  If you have the nerve, wrap the book back up and give it to her at the first possible opportunity!!
12/26
RESPONSE:  Now Who Needs a Little Morality in Her Life?
Your MIL is a psycho nightmare!  Anyone who would be that calculated and underhanded obviously has some SERIOUS problems!  I'm sorry you have to deal with such an evil b*tch.  Obviously, she's the one lacking in morality.
1/8
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