Ok dwilers, I need help on how to nicely phrase an awkward conversation I think I need to have with my inlaws. DH and I have 3 kids - 7, 5, and 2. My FIL is a retired 2nd grade teacher and my MIL is a retired daycare provider. Both are huge hippies and live roughly 2 hours from us. I am totally different than them but we respect eachother and generally get along fine. MIL is my BEC but she is just a garden-variety of crazy, nowhere near as bad as what I read on this board.
Both inlaws are very hands-on and present with the kids when they visit us. I know my ILs are generally harmless but they do things with other kids we encounter out and about that really sends stranger-danger fear to other parents.
My latest example happened today and I realize I need to say something to them about not engaging so much with my kids. We were at the park and my daughter started playing with another little girl. My daughter peeked around a pillar and said peek-a-boo to my FIL and he responded. Then the other little girl did the same and he responded. Then the kids then started chasing him and other kids joined in. It made me uncomfortable and I was thinking about how to change the game in a tactful way but didn't get a chance to before the mom called her kids away. The mom of the other girls had gone to her car to nurse her baby and was maybe 40 feet away. She called her girls to her car and as they were leaving I could hear her talking about not being so friendly with strangers. I was mortified because I should have said something but it all happened so fast.
Here is my question, how do I tactfully tell them that their friendliness is too much and they shouldn't engage with children who aren't their grandchild. I know they think with their professional backgrounds that it is totally ok but it totally gives me the creeps. We have soccer games and numerous kid events this weekend and I can't have any more awkward situations.
Last little example, a few years ago while at a ceramics studio with the kids, my MIL tried to give her contact info to the father of a 12 year old so the girl could contact her about writing an article in the local newspaper (my MIL thinks she is a very well-connected civic person in her small town). I could tell the family was SOOO uncomfortable but my MIL had no idea that what she was doing was so inappropriate.