Just had a call from my daughter, they are visiting in laws today.Before Christmas she had gone with the children to a craft centre where the children could decorate an item of pottery. They decorated coffee mugs, one each for myself, their other grandma and grandpa, as a christmas present. I used mine straight away, but when she gave them to the other grandparents they said they would not use them, but put them in the display cabinet. She was very annoyed and told them that they were made for them to use. She could not wait to get a moment to call me to vent about it.She realises that they might get broke, but if that was so, at least they had the pleasure of using them, knowing the children had worked on them.
So it goes to show, it is not just quilters who like their work to be used

But just like we have to do, they have to let the recipient use them as they see fit.

You might suggest that she do what my mother did to her MIL. Grandma had beautiful towels, sheets, dishes, etc. that she and grandpa had gotten as gifts at their 50th anniversary celebration. Grandma had packed everything away to keep it for "good". One day mom got a roll of masking tape and a Sharpie. She started writing her name on the masking tape and taping it to a bunch of Grandma's brand new towels. "What are you doing?" asked Grandma. Mom replied that when Grandma died all this stuff would still be brand new so she was picking out what she wanted and putting her name on it. She said, "I'll guarantee you that I'll put it to use." With that, Grandma snatched the towels away, ripped mom's tape off and hung them in the bathroom. She said, "If you aren't going to keep them nice then I might as well use them myself." Years later when Grandma died there wasn't an unused anything to be found.

I like your mother :lol:

Love it.

RaptureReady - You're right. Once a gift is given, it is up to the recipient to decide how to use it.

Sall - Perhaps displaying these mugs really does give the other grandparents pleasure whenever they look at them. There are many items that have been given to me that I don't 'use', or only use occasionally, but every time I see them, they tug my heartstrings!

RaptureReady - You're right. Once a gift is given, it is up to the recipient to decide how to use it.

Sall - Perhaps displaying these mugs really does give the other grandparents pleasure whenever they look at them. There are many items that have been given to me that I don't 'use', or only use occasionally, but every time I see them, they tug my heartstrings!

I see nothing wrong with them displaying them!!!! My daughter made me one like that, too. I put it on my display case (she put grapes on it and my rack has grape theme)......and it's been there for years. She knows that every time someone comes and comments on the rack I point out that MY DAUGHTER MADE THAT!!!! I honestly think it's fine and isn't something the daughter should be upset about!

at least they aren't trying to exchange them, lol!!

I think it was Leo Buscaglia who said, don't save your nice things for a special occasion, thinking you will pass them down to your kids. Chances are your kids don't want them!! If you like something, use it every day. I have my afternoon tea from a china cup and saucer that was my mom's, I swear it tastes better than in a mug.

My ex MIL did the saving for "good" Lost all of it in a fire in her storage area and all she had left was the ratty old stuff.
We stopped buying her nice linens when she would not use them.

Older people are the "Depression and World War II" generation. They learned from their folks or their own experience not to use the "good" things they had. They saved them "in case". When my grandmother moved about 20 years ago, we found tons of linens and dishes that she had never ever used. Some of them were 30 or more years old, and had never been unwrapped. She gave them all to us, as she was moving into her daugher's home with no room to store her "good" stuff she had saved all those years. What she took with her with some really threadbare linens that she said were "good enough" to be used. It made me sad that she didn't use them for herself.