Sorry to complain but I want to know if it's just me, how you've possibly dealt with this or if I'm just being a jerk.
My children are my husband's parents' only grandchildren. They had two sons, one died in his late twenties with no kids so we're it. They live 3 states away, an 11-hour road trip (plus stops), and yet they try to fly to visit us 3 times a year (for the kids' birthdays). Then, they buy a ton of presents. I think spending $100 on one of my kids for a birthday is too much. One Christmas we went to their house and I swear they had 20 presents for each kid. It was too much.
I often feel my MIL is out-doing me and even when I ask her to buy just a couple, she goes over. I try to talk to my husband about it but he says let them spend their money the way they want to. Problem is, I think they have credit card debt and are very unwise with their money. They just moved last year and she mentioned wanting to start a GoFundMe to help with their moving costs. Then she buys my kids a $200 TinkerCrate Subscription for Christmas.
Plus other gifts. They are approaching retirement age (I think my FIL is 65? almost 66?) but admit they can't retire. They have no savings. Social Security would be the only retirement dividends they would get. I try to tell my husband that someday they're going to ask him to help them out in their old age and I will feel very bitter about it because they should be preparing for retirement instead of spoiling my kids.
Am I wrong to ask them to limit their presents to my kids? What's a tactful way of asking them to ease up on presents and get it through to them that my kids don't need all this stuff and it makes me feel uncomfortable knowing they are not doing well financially but blowing so much money on my kids?