What is your reaction to gifts that you either don’t want, don’t need, or don’t like?
As a child, I had a grandmother who LOVED to buy us dresses. Every Christmas and Easter, she would go to the Ugly Dress Shop and purchase for my sister Bean and I the most horrible creations ever produced by the early 70’s designers. The dresses were always itchy, uncomfortable, God awful patterned monstrosities that sometimes actually fit us.
My mother had no trouble telling us how butt ugly these dresses were. But she told us AFTER we got them home, away from my grandmother. My mother never made us wear the dresses, but when my grandmother gave them to us, we had to be polite, be gracious, thank her, and act as if she were handing us an original Dolce and Gabbana couture collection gown. So we did.
It was that way with any gift we received. If it was something we didn’t want or didn’t need, my mother would help us find someone to re-gift an item to. If it was something that didn’t fit us, it would get passed on to someone that it would fit. But NEVER did you tell someone you didn’t appreciate the thought behind the gift by telling them to their face that you didn’t want the gift.
Well, apparently, this particular lesson was lost on my husband. He sees absolutely NO problem with telling someone to just give him cash for an occasion (which we were NEVER allowed to do in our house), or telling them once they’ve given him something “Thanks, but I don’t want it.”
I cringe everytime someone gives Jim a gift. I think it’s so rude to show anything but appreciation that someone has taken the time and effort to purchase something with you in mind.
So, someone tell me I’m right! Those that side with Jim will have access only to my blogs about bad restaurants, boring movies, and rotten kids.