Originally Posted by lab fairy

I know I'm going to be really unpopular here in the next 20 seconds. I'll apologize in advance.

All MIL's are not out to get you, they don't do things to spite you, they might find your actions really silly (sometimes we look back and realize they were). Very rarely do you see a wicked MIL in a pointy hat cackling in delight that she pulled another one over on you. If she didn't love YOUR child she would never give a gift in the first place.

Instead of trying to remove the ink. Why not learn to share the books anyway? My children have many with their names in them and were shared. We always knew who to return them to when we were done with them.

I always write inscriptions in books that I gift. I always ask the giver of a book to inscribe them to me. Maybe that is the author in me coming out. I have many many books that are treasured because they were gifts from people I can no longer see.

Why do people always look at a gift and think "now how will I get rid of it"? My children received very few gifts from one set of grandparents and never were they "special" (that means with an inscription or anything more than "here this is for you" and then forgotten). MIL once told me they had too many grandchildren for any one to be special. I wrote things down so they would always remember their grandparent loved them enough to give them such and such. I hope someday they will share those treasures with their families.

Maybe WE are the ones having issues with MIL's and not the child having a problem with an inscription in a book. I haven't found too many very young children who cannot understand the concept of allowing someone to borrow something. If the book is a precious object, then of course, it should be kept in a special place and not loaned out. I have a few of those myself. I never loan out my first Chemistry and Phyics Handbook that my Dean of Natural Sciences gave me. I bought a second one to loan. The other is in its special place, inscriptions and all.

This has inspired me. Now I'm off to call my SIL and irritate him by telling him I found the book he was searching for. I think I'll inscribe it.