A woman is sharing her frustration on Reddit about her mother-in-law’s apparent mission to “out-gift” her when it comes to buying presents for her daughter.
The anonymous poster explains that her daughter’s birthday is approaching, and she’s already anxious that her husband’s mom will go all out to top her own gift.
She writes: “Before she was born she already received two gifts on separate occasions from my mother-in-law: her first gold bracelet and her first diamond earrings. My mother-in-law can’t truly afford these things but she always has to be the first with everything and outdo me in every way and act innocent about it.”
The woman also claims her mother-in-law was the one to announce her pregnancy at a family party. “I wasn’t there,” she adds, “but she made it a huge event where she gifted someone a fancy gift for guessing right that I was pregnant. She’s taken so many of these first-time opportunities from me.”
She continues: “I see a recurring trend with her wanting to make sure she gifts my daughter jewelry — even if we make a registry of things we want, she will most likely do what she wants as she’s done before.”
With her daughter’s first birthday approaching, the woman had planned to buy a meaningful piece of jewelry herself — but fears her mother-in-law will beat her to it.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(698x351:700x353):format(webp)/A-woman-is-holding-a-necklace-with-pearls-and-diamonds-091825-ed8b5a2190a642989c7ce5cb35b22a14.jpg)
“Every year I would like to be the one to gift her these nice pieces of jewelry to give her when she’s older,” she writes. “I don’t want to have to dig through a jewelry box of half stuff from my mother-in-law, half stuff from me, and have her end up liking my mother-in-law’s stuff more.”
She adds: “I know it’s a lot to gift, but this is my first and most likely only child and I want to be the one to give her these sentimental gifts. My husband and I haven’t been doing well because his mom keeps overstepping boundaries with our child.”
She concludes her post with a plea for advice: “How do I make sure she doesn’t gift gold and diamond fancy jewelry to her anymore?”
Other Reddit users suggested getting creative. One wrote, “I’d make sure your daughter always receives your gift first and if your mother-in-law chooses to give jewelry, then just say thanks and I’d probably sell it and deposit the money into an account for your daughter.”
Another commenter added, “You can’t control what MIL gives to baby. But you can put every single piece MIL gives to her away in a separate jewelry box at the top of the closet. You are keeping it safe for baby for when she’s old enough to appreciate and wear them. You control what baby actually wears and gets to interact with.”
