How do I politely tell my MIL that I dont want her to keep getting us used baby clothes?
Im 20 weeks pregnant & my MIL keeps getting us used baby clothes for my daughter. I understand the economy sucks & babies outgrow clothes so quickly, but this is my first child & Im excited to buy her cute clothes & I dont really like having my baby be the charity baby with a bunch of hand me downs. Some people don’t mind it, but I do. The things she has given us are from Goodwill & they smell & look very worn. I have just said thanks the one time that she gave them to me directly & then threw them in the trash later on, but she keeps giving bags to my husband when Im not around. The thing is, she isnt poor or hard on money & she works in the baby & kids department at Target so I know she could as easily buy a clearance outfit for as much as she spends on used clothes. And she has spoiled her first grandchild & my sister in law so much with nice, new things & I feel like she views our baby as some people do as the 2nd child & like it’s ok to just give our kid sloppy second hand me downs. She does alot of annoying things that rub me the wrong way & I bite my tongue, but I feel like she needs to know this & should already have the common sense to not be so tacky anyways & just not buy us clothes all together or at least not buy used. Is there a polite way of saying something to her without causing a huge fight? I know its nice that she even does anything for us, but just not the what I want & I want to nip this in the bud before that is all she is doing is buying us used things that will just end up in the trash.
Filed under: Baby Clothes
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Wow that’s a tough one, Im in the same boat with my mom. For our first daughter she bought the best of everything. For our second daughter who is 5 months old she has spent $7!
She nagged me because I bought her a brand new Britax Marathon car seat, the same one I bought our first daughter at the same age, and told me I should just get a cheaper one. She complains that I buy her all new Carter’s clothes… the same as I did for our first.
I finally sat down with her and told her that I would prefer to give my daughter the best I can offer.
Honestly in your situation I would say the best thing to do is to thank her but tell her you’d rather buy baby new clothes than have her get all the used ones because you want to be able to use the clothes again for another baby. Whether or not that’s true, it can be used.
Good luck, its a tough situation.
Tell her politely that you already have plenty of clothes, please do not purchase any more… Telling her to purchase you only new clothes is kind of ungrateful and much tackier than her buying you used ones. Be polite and just tell her you don’t need anything else. If she DOES buy you used clothes again, instead of throwing them in the trash you could give them to someone who needs them – there are a lot of people out there who would love to have free baby clothes, and putting them in the landfill is kind of a waste.
there isnt really a nice way to go about it.
maybe just tell her that the baby already has tons of clothes and really dosent need any more.
my mother in law doesnt buy used (i dont like used items either, and im not a snob or have tons of money, i just dont like the thought of putting my child in used clothes) but she always makes this huge deal of having to know what size my son wears, and once we tell her she goes had buys him clothes 3 sizes too big! and never includes a gift receipt so we have no idea where they came from to get the right size. its super annoying. those clothes usually end up at the bottom of his closet forgotten and never to be worn.
Dear Roxy,
It is custom that the old cloths of baby are given to the newborn baby.
But instead of refusing and hurting them, You simply accept and dont use it (if you dont want to use).
tell her " this is my first baby and i want only new clothes for her" you are not expected to get her anything we will.
just tell the truth. "I really think my baby has enough used clothes so we’ll start getting her new items…"
if you don’t wanna use the used clothes give them back to the thrift store or a local homeless shelter. one mans trash is another mans treasure.