Not received, but given…
One Christmas, I was truly skint. No way I could afford to buy even half eddecent pressies for everyone, so I decided to buy the worst presents I could find instead. I found a £1 shop that was having a ‘25% off’ sale. I bought my vegetarian sister in law a glue based mouse trap, I bought my dad some cleaning spray for car seat leather (his car had fabric seats), I got my brother a feather duster.
On Christmas eve I laid the groundwork by saying, “I didn’t have a lot to work with this year, but I think I’ve done pretty well!”.
On Christmas morning, I asked to give out ny presents first and bigger them up again with ,“I put anlot of thought into this and I think you’re all going to be very happy!”. I gave out the presents and watching them open them with an expectant, wide eyed grin, like “I did good, right?”.
It went perfectly. A slight awkward pause while they checked my expectant face, then everyone burst out laughing. They loved the joke, we were all happy. I have fonder memories of that morning than other times when I was able to give out actually good presents.
My ex used to do the Homer Simpson trick and gift me things he wanted for himself. Often it was something he knew I didn’t want.
For example, I didn’t want a laptop in the house. The kids were younger and it would be harder to monitor their internet usage if they were on a laptop versus the desktop I had purposely set up in a spot where we could easily glance at the screen when they were on it. (This was before tablets and smart phones were common.)
Also, I didn’t want a laptop because I’m a huge nerd who will lose hours to the computer if it’s in my lap comfortably on the couch rather than at a desk. I knew this about myself and was trying to limit my internet usage.
Also, we were broke and struggling to pay bills, and a laptop was an unnecessary luxury.
He talked about getting a laptop for months and months. I kept arguing against it. So of course, that was my Christmas gift from him that year.
Normally how it went was that he would gift me something and then after a few months, it would just magically become his (he gifted me a nice car stereo one time and after a few months just upped and put it in his car, for example). I knew that was his plan… I was so fed up that I used the shit out of that laptop out of pure spite… Didn’t share the password… Put it away every night I went to bed… Took it with me when I traveled without him…
Anyway. Nothing shittier than receiving a Homer Simpson bowling ball.
Not my story, but too comedic not to tell. Used to wash dishes with a guy, really cool dude, his stepfather was the head chef for multiple successful restaurants in the area including the one we worked at. Everybody else in the family is able to get whatever the hell they want for free. Shit, even managers got like $500 in gift cards to give to their family for free. But my dishwashing friend got a $20 gift card to the restaurant we worked at from his stepdad.
when i was 16 my mother and sister both pitched in to buy me … a shaver. I didn’t even fucking have facial hair. they bought one that was ridiculously overpriced. I could’ve gotten a Playstation 2 for the ridiculous amount they paid but instead they got me this dumb fucking appliance that I don’t think I even used ONCE.
still can’t grow a beard for shit to this day though…
what’s worse is, they took me fucking shopping for it lying to my goddamn face telling me it was for my dad. I made it as clear as humanly possible at the time that this was a pointless, stupid farce of a plan because HE WAS TRYING TO GROW A BEARD AT THE TIME. They kept looking at each other with this stupid smug expression while pointlessly trying to draw me into the discussion about what shaver would be best for him.
When they revealed that it was actually for me,
sigh
…I didn’t blow up at them or anything, I didn’t pitch a fit or throw a tantrum, I just…
look. I knew, even back then, it’s a dick move to look a gift horse in the mouth. it’s a present. i’m supposed to be grateful. the least i could do is be diplomatic about it.
But that did not change the fact that they had every opportunity to listen to me, but chose not to. They made a big performative display of acting like they actually cared, but when it came to making decisions and taking courses of action that would have resulted from actually caring, they did not. And that just felt hypocritical to me. Forever.
Are you 16 and half now? I had to ASK for a razor back in the days…
Some people just don’t get much of a beard naturally. An interesting thing is that you can actually use minoxidil (Rogaine) on your face and still grow one.
When i was 16, so 25 years ago lol, Gillette sent me a razor and a pack of blades through the post for nothing. It was a very good marketing strategy tbf as I continued to buy blades for it for 20 years until I bought myself a safety razor and enough blades to last probably 10 years
A 200 page tome filled with questionable arguments for the veracity of his religion written by my grandfather after he got cancer. I did give it a chance and read through large portions of it (minus a large section on a theory he had regarding the location of the mythical events in the religion). It was… Unfortunately poor.
Then it was a balance of not trying to tear apart one of his proudest pieces of work and not pretend I believed it until he passed away.
Yes, for those guessing - - I grew up Mormon and that is the religion in question.
Wow, I’m also ex-mormon and found myself in a similar position when I received a book on Isaiah written by my grandfather. It sat on my shelf for years until I was working my way through an ancient to modern literature reading list and read it alongside the old testament.
For a minute I thought you were one of my nieces. My father did the same thing about catholicism. 🙄
When I was in my early 20s, I foolishly dated a selfish stingy man for wayyyyy too long. I would go all out and get him whatever he asked for, take him out, the works, and I would have to save for months because I was a grad student working 3 PT jobs. For my birthday one year, he planned nothing, but my parents were nice enough to invite him to the fancy dinner they were paying for at a swanky blues club. He shows up with a plastic bag from one of those mega truck stops. Inside was a shark beanie baby and silver skull-shaped tire valve covers. I hated beanie babies, had no particular thing for sharks, skulls, or random ass car accessories. I was so embarrassed in front of my parents.
A self help / “how to be successful” book for my birthday from my parents. It wasn’t even that good – it had typos and grammatical errors all over. I was in my early-mid 20s. My dad made me read a chapter every week (and take notes) and then he’d go over it with me. Eventually he stopped forcing me to read it because I put up too much of a fight.
Nothing says “I love you” like being reminded your parents see you as a failure.
There’s a reason I’m in therapy…
So, how do you be successful?
I think I stopped reading just before that chapter…
You write a book telling people how to be successful.
My big present when I turned 10 was a weedwacker and new chores.
Dad?
Not a single gift, but my MIL has this obsession with keeping things “even” for the holidays so everyone receives the same number of gifts. This inevitable means that everyone receives a set quantity of filler gifts. So I get grouped in with my BILs, who are nice but we are different people. She’ll split sock packs between us, bulky shirts that don’t fit me, car and garage accessories that I have no use for, etc. I got a single roll of duct tape once. Not even good duct tape, a thin dollar-store roll. I’ve said so many times I don’t need a pile of things to unwrap, that I’d be far happier with just one, thoughtful gift I could really use instead of having to haul a boxful of cheap useless things home. But nope, gotta get those numbers up.
Not even good duct tape, a thin dollar-store roll.
This is where she crossed the line.
The nerve of that woman.
I have a similar experience with my extended family that I only see once a year during the holidays. They usually gave me cheap gifts that I had no use for, and I always had to pretend to be grateful for them. I’ve said for years that I’d rather just get nothing at all than the gifts that were obviously just given to me for the sake of giving me something.
The worst gift I’ve ever received once was a some kind of gift certificate to weight watchers. I was pissed off because I actually had been losing weight on my own just fine.
God damn, that just feels like they’ve only gifted it to be passive agressive, did you have a good relationship with the giver at the time?
I did and it soured that friendship.
I received a large framed portrait of myself. No mater where I hang that I’m going to look like a narcissist.
I think the one place it wouldn’t make you look like a narcissist, would be in the toilet (where I’m from, the toilet, or at least one toilet, if there are several, is often in a tiny separate room with only the toilet and a small washbasin; idk if that’s a thing where you live).
This is an excellent suggestion. Transforms it from massive cringe to pretty self-deprecatingly funny.
You need to sneak it into their house and put it up somewhere!
In our family, consisting of myself as the oldest, my brother as the middle child, and my sister as the youngest, our birthdays fall within a month of each other. At some point, my mother befriended this particular individual and their family, resulting in them frequently visiting. However, both my brother and I never really liked them due to their behavior, while my sister seemed to be held in high regard and became their favorite. Personally, I didn’t mind this as it meant dealing with them less.
On the occasion of my sister’s birthday, they came over to celebrate and brought along a trunk full of gifts for her. Of course, she was overjoyed with everything she received. After showcasing all the presents for my sister, they surprisingly announced that they also had gifts for my brother and I. They handed us a bag, and upon looking inside, we discovered Arby’s frisbees inside. Apparently, on their way to my sister’s party, they had eaten at Arby’s, and the frisbees came as a bonus with their meals.
Now whenever I see them I think about the fucken frisbee!!!
I was 9 years old. It was Christmas. My aunt and uncle got me a chocolate orange. I dont like chocolate.
A dead mouse to my doorstep. I don’t even own a cat, they just really like me for some reason. I guess it’s the thought that counts.
Once when I left a company they gave me a golf-themed inspirational poster. I hate golf and inspirational posters. I looked around the room to see if they were being ironic, but no.
This just feels like they still had it lying around in the storage closet or something. At that point it’s just better to get nothing.
