This week, Momof2 is looking for advice on how to keep grandparents "from going completely overboard with expensive, elaborate, space-consuming gifts that don't reflect our parenting values." She writes that even though she has given her kids' grandparents specific suggestions for modest gifts, they've ended up giving costly gifts that don't fit in her house.

This is a tough one, but Jan Faull, a Seattle parent educator and author of several parenting books, addressed it well in an article published on Healthykids.com and parents.com. Here are some of the tips she offered in that piece for managing grandparents who give too much, especially if they are bent on spending a lot:

--Instead of something your child doesn't need, put the grandparents in charge of buying a big-ticket item he does need, such as a big-boy bed. Or they could contribute to a backyard play set.

--Ask grandparents to put money in the kids' college fund instead of buying a present.

--If space is an issue, have grandparents purchase a membership for the child to the local science center. (That way, they could take the child and enjoy each other's company, too.)

--If grandparents have their hearts set on buying an object that's large and expensive, ask them to keep it at their house, so Junior can have something exciting to play with there.