This is the most random, possibly passive-aggressive birthday gift I’ve ever received…

[MonicaFaloolaGeller]

It was my birthday yesterday. I’m 36 and not particularly hairy of face.

This arrived in the post today from my Mother.

I mean I hate to sound ungrateful, I know it’s the thought that counts and all but… WTF?!

So are you going to thank her OP?!
I lost my sense of smell more than 20 years ago. Completely. I’ve lost count of the the number of times my family have gifted me an aromatherapy set, scented candle or perfume

My MIL is spectacularly bad at presents. Always buys DD clothes two to three years ahead of wear she is (so a size 11 top was dds Christmas present when she was 8) and one year she bought me a big purple shopping bag. I now just smile and nod at whatever the latest thing is and just put it away / charity shop it. She’s (mostly) not rude with them though… never sunk as far as a facial hair trimmer!!

Honestly I’d send this to the charity shop…

@SpindleWhorl

They're crap anyway.

I don’t know what I would do without mine, it’s fab for that white facial fuzz.

My Mam got me one of those for last Christmas! I thought it was fantastic!! I epilate my face now but it was so much fun for a while.

My parents are into telling me if I have hairs in funny places.
It makes me feel enormously interfered with, rejected & that I don't want to see them ever again.
Which I guess is juvenile, but sheesh, why do they care so much?!
My dad picks his nose when he reads the newspaper -- I have never commented on this.

I wonder what they think they are achieving.

@Tlollj * My friend’s then boyfriend bought her cilit bang*. I read as ‘clit bang’ - regift that I thought

I can't see why this is an issue. It was just wrongly thought out, no need to get in a tizzy or nasty; unless she makes a habit of sending bad gifts. Really, there must be more in life for you to get on with and people saying do a tit-for-tat horrid gift are just plain symptomatic of what's wrong with our society these days.

Rubbish present but possibly a tad more useful than the really cheap sliding patio door lock that my sister gave me one Christmas. I do not have a sliding patio door... she's stayed in my house many times. I'd bought her a really nice camera too. And to add insult to injury, she had actually forgotten my Christmas present and handed the shitty lock to me in February. When I said "thanks but I don't have sliding patio doors" she told me to keep it in case it came in handy.

So I did and I gave it to her the following Christmas. Her face was a picture.

Just googled it, OP. Seems to be expensive enough and gets good reviews. Perhaps intentions were good. What is your relationship like with your mum? I just wish at the fairly hairless phase of 30s somebody had warned me that I would be sporting Brian Blessed level of beard by my late 40s. I would appreciate that gift!

My Mum from her 60s on couldn't see a thing when she went shopping, and went for the pretty big patterned pyjamas to gift me in all the wrong sizes. (Generally massively too big, but this was better than small as you can make great soft washable floor cushion covers.) Same with my kids. They got 7 year old clothes when they were 9 and vice versa.

@TatianaBis

Just googled Willow Tree Figurines. 😝

Why don’t they have faces?

Don't know why, but the one we got for a wedding (nothing passive aggressive) lives next to the Doctor Who DVDs, as it looks like the people who get their faces sucked into the TV by Maureen Lipman in one episode.

I would tell your mum it helped you get camera ready 😉😉.
Tbh at 55 I am buying one! My mother had an evil tongue, she once told me I would never be pretty but I might make elegant in my 30s, thanks for that.

My late MIL bought her 93 year old mum one of those bra slip things.. you know what I mean? Don't know if they still make them.. a bra with a slip / underskirt all in one.
Didn't fit her mum (she'd told me / showed it to me) I got it for the Christmas afterwards.. didn't upset me though, the previous year was a hot water bottle..

Can you buy her something equally inappropriate?

My mum had form for 'unusual gifts that in her mind were well thought out. My sister once got a litre tub of E45 cream and a tin of medicated talcum powder for Christmas. Mum's rationale - to help keep my sisters skin nice as she had recently bought a horse and would be out in all weathers.

😂 my mum has been on at me to shave my face as I'm at that age 🤣Just regaining hair growth after chemotherapy but she's right and DD1 found a perfect razor in Superdrug. Mums eh? X

I got my mum one of those. She loves it! At first she looked hurried like she was going to cry when she opened the present. But she uses it all the time!

Does it work though? (Asking for a friend)

Passive aggressive

That’s hilarious.

I’ll have it if you don’t want it :)

Last year she bought me a toilet seat she noticed my last one was getting a bit wobbly. She wrapped it in christmas paper.

That's hilarious

She’s clearly regifted it to you! You need to regift somebody else. It’s the present equivalent of a chain letter. In 5 years time we all will have had a turn.

Tell her you gave it to dh for his arse hair... Now in every meet up she will be imagining her ds with a soft smooth bum again!

My aunt does mega passive aggressive gifts - one Christmas I had displeased her and she gave out lovely gifts to everyone including my DH who she usually doesn’t buy for and then sat smirking as I opened a scarf which was crinkled from being worn, had a food stain on it and smelled of cheap perfume. So bizarre!

@ERFEER my sister used to buy me the ugliest pyjamas she could find for my birthday. After my father died I got nothing. I robbed him apparently! I think she was hoping my husband no longer fancied me. Old, fat, nasty pj's, still can't keep the bugger at bay 30 years later! However i'd buy a pot of eyelash extensions (they look like pubes) and gift it to her! Hilarious.