Check the sending mail format - if it is html then your email application will try and embed the images in the mail body rather then send them as attachments.
If you want to ensure that attachements do not get displayed as images in the email body and they remain as icons that have to be opened, then ensure that you send your email in normal text format and not as html.
I can't join you in slagging of Macs as tht would be thread creep and I recently got told off by SD for doing that
Think of your wife's Mac as an opportunity to experience a different interpretation and implementation of the Document Oriented Computing Paradigm. In fact, some would rightly argue it is the true evolution of the original implementation of this paradigm.
Now you feel better, right?