Richard Pryor had some advice for Bill Cosby he once told Eddie Murphy.

I think it's applicable in this situation as well.

First of all, does your grandma have anything she collects? Or any hobbies? Seriously... if she collects Hummel figurines or collector plates or Norman Rockwell prints or anything like that, who is she to talk? Or does she spend money on knitting supplies or canning peaches or any such thing? Really, unless she's a miser who never spends a dime on her own amusement, I would kindly throw it back in her face.

Dear Grandma,

Due to your recent letter, it has come to my attention that you have too much free time on your hands. I have set up an appointment at a retirement center in regards to having you admitted. You may have seen them on 60 Minutes, when they were featured due to their abuses in regards to the elderly.

I'm assured their work camps will give you a feeling of being productive.

In return for doing you this favor, I will agree to cutting back my movie purchases by 1. I will now only purchase 3 per month.

Love,
Grandson

4 a month doesn't seem bad at all. I remember when I had more cash laying around, I'd usually buy 2-6 a week.

She's yelling at you because she can. According to her all-mighty priorities, she has deemed your hobby to have no merit, therefore, you're getting an ass-chewing for wasting your time with this foolishness. So sayeth the grandma.

This is a universal problem. For instance, I also like to buy CDs and DVDs. Many moons ago (pre-DVD actually), I had my Mom yell at me for having $100 on my credit card. Keep in mind that then, as in now, I payed off my credit card every month. I had no debt then, no debt now and I pay all my bills on time. Yet here she is ripping on me. She couldn't stand the fact that I had bought books, magazines, CDs, etc. What a waste, she said!

Now, my sister. My sister (who is wonderful by the way, love her dearly) had about $6,000 on her credit card. Yes! You read that right! $6K! But, that was okay, you see. Why? Because she bought clothes...um, more clothes and shoes and hair stuff and whatever girly girls buy. Not a peep from my Mom. Nothing. I decided to remind my Mom of that fact as well as the fact that they had purchased her a car while I had bought and was making payments on my very own car.

No matter what you do, there's going to be this weird familial inequity. I'll tell you this: no matter how much you keep your nose clean, you're going to catch shit for the most amazingly stupid reasons while you watch assholes skate by because they're a favorite. I'd like to hazard a guess that this happens to everyone else whether it's family or work. Don't be easy to pick on or else the crap will never stop.

So what can you do? Perhaps email her what you've posted to us?

I've subscribed to this thread simply because I love all the responses.

I guess am lucky I don't have to deal with these kind of serious problems, grandma #1 I am pretty sure just figured out what dvds are/how they work and grandma #2 died before they started selling dvds... quite possibly before she had a chance to be familiar with vhs.

Yeah, that's lucky.

I also never met her, I'm in a pretty safe zone regarding grandmas complaining about dvd collecting anytime soon.

thats really funny that she things you need professional help because you purchase 4 movies a month
with my bluray purchasing habits she would have me commited instantly
maybe you should tell her you are simply helping your sister by buying the movies from her, since she is selling everything off in order to finance
her drug addiction

Non-collectors never understand collectors. Usually there are two responses, they are fascinated and think it's cool, or they think it is a big waste of money. This isn't limited to family. I experienced it with friends and especially the spouse. When younger my friends thought I was nuts for blowing so much money on albums instead of beer and pot, which is what they would have spent it on. And yet when someone was at my house for the first time the first thing they noticed was all the crates full of albums and would browse through them. It wouldn't suprise me if less than 10% of the audience at a concert has ever owned a recording by that artist. The power of radio.
My ex-wife would give me shit if I bought just one new album, like I threw the money in the trash. But spending money on a concert was no big deal.
Most people think of movies as a disposable item. You see the latest current thing, and once you've seen it, that's it. A non-material experience/part of life. Same with music. Where collectors have a material/physical relationship with the experience.

I can't believe no one's jumped on this yet. Why is she "supposed" and why is "'grandma'" in scare-quotes? Step-granny? Granny-in-law? Adoption? Super kameha-meha bitch?

Grandma's sending email? What the hell is this world coming to? Mine used to slap my hand when I reached for the console radio. Tell her to bite your ass. That should change the subject real quick and give her something else to focus on.

I think he was going for: If she was a "real" grandma, she wouldn't be treating him like shit.

I don't know if I'm buying the validity of "Grandma" here. You say she sent you an email? C'mon, we all know old people can't operate one of those fancy computers.

Also, this really should be in Otter.

A common reaction to someone encountering a noticeable collection is to ask how many do you have, then ask how much you paid for each one. They do the mental arithmetic and come up with the grand sum. Then, they act astounded or incredulous at the amount like you bought them all at once.

Lessee...200 DVDs at $10-15 each.....that's over $2000! Dude, you spent over 2 G's on this?

If you spent your money on things that had no physical accumulation, like partying, then there's nothing for people to gaze upon and add up.

exactly, there is nothin left except a bad hangover
at least we have something to show for it

you are so absolutely right with your post!
most people would watch a movie once and never care for it again.
i have several friends who even pride themselves for never having bought
a movie ,but instead downloading in crap quality.
when they see my collection they would also make comments like what a waste of money, but usually be the first ones to want to borrow something!
also, they have a hard time understanding that some people actually watch a movie more than once
to me it is also a degree of intollerance. i don`t tell them what is right or wrong, or what they should do with their money either!
if no one bought movies anymore, where would the studios get the cash
to finance the next big projects!?

I just need you to know that this thread has been the best thing I have read in many a moon. My lord, I was due for a good laugh.

What about the illegitimate kids?

Since this is DVD Talk, I'm guessing that you are not going to ask her to join the forum to talk about dvd's?

Your supposed grandma is right. Four different midget bestiality porn DVDs a month indicates a problem. Seek help!

oh this was great. I knew this would get some good replies. Funny ones and also actual helpful ones. And i did put "grandma" in quotes because of the whole no grandma should treat their grandchild like this stuff. Sometimes I do buy more than 4...just a guess...this month i probably bought many more than 4, but she pissed me off so I had to. She gave me a good excuse. I checked my bank account yesterday because i was going to move money from savings...turned out i had over 2000 in checking so I thought...might as well buy 500 days of summer today...so i did. And got Extract in the mail as well. And yesterday Robot Chicken season 4 came...last weekend bought All About Steve and District 9. Weekend before that bought a dane cook stand up dvd, forrest gump blu ray, fight club blu ray and got Inglorious basteds and The Hangover in the mail. And public enemies as well. This has been pretty much the best month ever.