She tries.

Shari

IsItFridayYet?
Two Brooms just called. She's in town (again - she's ALWAYS in town). She wanted to know what size pants easy child 2/difficult child wears because the sale rack at Walmart has capris.

Same scenario every year.

Every year, she buys a whole bunch of stuff off the clearance rack at walmart. She picks the stretchy pants or shorts and the tops with little screen printed flower designs all over them. Cute. If the girl was 5.

Every year, easy child 2/difficult child won't wear it.

Every year, I end up attempting to take back 10 or 12 items at the end of summer that she's not even taken the tags off of.

Every year, they'll take back about 2 of them, I'll get about $2 back, and I end up sending the rest to Goodwill.

Oh well. Just another year.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
LOL - Just have husband take 'em back immediately!

If he won't... Do it and buy something for yourself plus jeans for the kid.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
I have a sister in law who does stuff like that -- usually for me. She'll get me stuff that's 3 sizes too big and then when she gives it to me, she tells me how SHE likes to wear stuff on the roomy side. Then when I go to exchange it, I find out that it's from the clearance rack, there aren't any left in my size, and it's only worth about $2 in store credit. I told the store to keep the item and left. I've stopped trying to exchange stuff from that particular person and it goes to charity so at least someone can use it.
 
M

ML

Guest
That is so annoying. Since it's done seemingly in the spirit of giving you would only appear ungrateful if you say anything. I guess there's not much you can do except smile, say thank you and take it to goodwill. Or, get the $2 and splurge on starbucks or something.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I wouldn't wait until the end of summer. I'd exchange them right away and then take difficult child and buy her something she will wear. Otherwise Goodwill is a good choice.

I do the same for the grands. But at least I do make the attempt to keep up with what they like to wear. sheesh
 

DaisyFace

Love me...Love me not
Shari--

It's possible that the woman just loves shopping the 'deals'. If she gets ten outfits for $15 it probably makes her day!

So I think this is a situation where you nod and smile. Listen to the story of the fanstastic sale. And then make a charitable donation to Goodwill or Salvation Army and deduct it from your taxes.

It's a win-win.
 

Shari

IsItFridayYet?
The problem lies in that she'll notice easy child 2/difficult child never wears what she bought, and somehow, then, this becomes my fault.

Oh, well. You are right. Smile, nod, and move on.

That's about the only way to deal with her, anyway.

She insists on buying the kids a birthday cake on their birthdays. That's her "tradition". In my family, the tradition was the kid got to pick out a cake from the Wilton cake book and we'd make it together. Not only was it fun, I just can't stomache the icing from grocery store cakes, so it was cake we'd actually eat.

Guess who's tradition went by the wayside?

Even when the kids picked a homemade cake over hers, she still insisted. Her new tactic is to just call me the day before we get together for the birthday and inform me she's got the cake. Wee didn't even want a cake this year. He wanted fruit salad in a watermelon bowl, so that's what we had. And she showed up with a half sheet cake.

I brought it in to work today. Minus 2 small pieces.

I know its the thought that counts, but I've met cinder block walls more teachable than this woman.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I'm huge on tradition.........but good grief, even I can compromise. Really, it's just not that hard to do.

I started the tradition of my kids having to hunt for their easter baskets on easter morning. (because we lived in apartments and had no room for egg hunts) easy child and Nichole continued the tradition. This year easy child and sister in law both have to work. easy child didn't want to take the boys to the sitter because she couldn't figure out how to explain to Darrin that the easter bunny would hide his basket there. So instead, the kids are spending the night here and Nana (aka easter bunny) will be hiding their baskets in my house. I suppose it's ok cuz I used to be an "elf" for Santa so I've got an inside line to these holiday guys. :rofl:

While I'm a traditional person, I realize my kids will carry on the ones they enjoyed and drop those they didn't, and they'll come up with new ones of their own.

This lady has pretty much twisted it into a power play. Smile and nod, just smile and nod.

Hugs
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
It's not about tradition for her. It's about control. Smile and nod. Smile and nod. She won't change. And you certainly don't have to!
 

Shari

IsItFridayYet?
That's exactly what we do...smile and nod and throw away what doesn't get eaten (which, in some cases, is the entire cake.) Or, like this year, feed it to the scavengers at the office.
 
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