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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I think DH has bought me a Hoover for xmas?

143 replies

Topsycurvy · 23/12/2014 08:23

Aibu to think I might actually cry?

We have a perfectly good Henry though I may have remarked recently that it was bulky and a pain to get in and out of the cupboard.

I am practising my 'oh wow, just what I wanted' face......

Xmas Grin
OP posts:
13Saren · 23/12/2014 18:18

I'm really surprised that some people think a hoover is an okay Christmas present from a DH/DP. My friend received an ironing board from her DH many years ago and he barely lived to tell the tale. If a domestic appliance is needed and the household budget is tight, it should be a joint present to each other as both partners benefit from it, no just the person who uses it.

MauriceTheCat · 23/12/2014 21:27

Why 13Saren? I'm being given something that isn't cheap... I don't need and for which, if I wanted I could buy a cheaper brand. but I will love and use this one almost daily.

Surely a decadent purchase, which is wanted and will be loved and used whether for the house, to wear, or to be looked at etc is an ideal present.

Yes our household budget stretches to one but my DH is pleased to get me something I love.

Hatespiders · 23/12/2014 21:45

I honestly and truly am finding it very hard to see why people would be furious to get household goods for a present. I must be so old I'm from a different era. (Well, that's true) My dh does all the hoovering and ironing in our house, But if he came into some money and got me something like a domestic appliance, I'd be absolutely thrilled. He's got me dusters and tea towels before, and a rice-boiler too, and I was very pleased. I must be quite weird as try as I may I can't see what's wrong with a vacuum cleaner as a gift!

Mehitabel6 · 23/12/2014 21:55

I am over 60yrs and I would be furious to get household goods for a present - so it is nothing to do with a different era. My mother would have equally been upset. She made it very clear that a present for her was not one for the house.
If we want a household appliance we buy it,but not as a gift.

BikketBikketBikket · 23/12/2014 21:58

I'm also from another era Hatespiders but my family have always been in no doubt that if they ever gave me anything remotely approaching a household appliance as a present, they'd be wearing it... Xmas Grin

Presents are things for YOU, not your house. If you want a large item such as a dishwasher then it comes out of the household budget, it is not presented to 'the little woman' to 'make her life easier'...

BikketBikketBikket · 23/12/2014 22:00

Great minds think alike eh Mehitabel6? Xmas Grin

Rosa · 23/12/2014 22:02

Ooooh i got one once from the Ils i did such a good 'oh how nice' they got me a pressure cooker the following year.!!!! Now I get nothing ( wonder why?). I got a kenwood cooking chef for my birthday but I wanted it and was happy to get it. However not for Christmas ...no no no no no

Mehitabel6 · 23/12/2014 22:03

Exactly Bikket. If you need a Hoover then buy it, even if it means you can't afford a present BUT don't pass it off as the present. Say you will buy a household appliance and not get each other presents this year.

Mehitabel6 · 23/12/2014 22:04

It was the way I was brought up Bikket- my father wouldn't have dared buy my mother something for the house as a present!

apotatoprintinapeartree · 23/12/2014 22:07

We bought gifts like this when we first started out and money was tight.
It's not ideal but at least its something.
I can remember getting dh a drill, set of screw drivers etc for the first few years.

I wouldn't like to say where the nozzle would go if he bought me a hoover as a gift now Xmas Grin
I am using my first pressie a new Mac as my lenovo died on me after 13 months.

Topseyt · 23/12/2014 22:09

No. My mum is just not the sort to be at all bothered by that sort of thing. She would get him pressies of a similar type - a chainsaw to cut logs for the fire, DIY tools such as electric drills

They usually have other pressies too. It was a family joke.

WannaBe · 23/12/2014 22:12

My mum has practically filled my kitchen over time. For christmas I have had saucepans, waffle maker, food processor, microwave. All well appreciated. This year she bought me a kitchenaid.

Hatespiders · 23/12/2014 22:12

Well in a way I'm relieved it isn't just my age (70)! My dh has never regarded me as 'the little woman' though. I know what I'm getting this year; it's rose-scented soaps, which I asked for. I love the smell of roses. I reckon that counts as non-domestic?

Jill2015 · 23/12/2014 22:12

I wouldn't be practising a pleased 'just what I wanted' face, unless it means he intends to do all the hoovering. A Hoover is NOT a Christmas present.

theeternalstudent · 23/12/2014 22:14

I'm another one who would be happy with a hover. In fact I was given a hover one year. I really would much rather have that than perfume or a gold bracelet. I have a drawer full of ridiculous jewellery that I never wear. Last year I was given a rubbish bin for xmas. Was very happy with it. Suppose it really is about how much money you have. I would love to be able to go out and replace those things without having to resort to birthdays and xmas.

13Saren · 23/12/2014 22:17

Why 13Saren? I'm being given something that isn't cheap... I don't need and for which, if I wanted I could buy a cheaper brand. but I will love and use this one almost daily.

If a hoover is your idea of decadence and you have actually asked your DH for it then obviously it is fine for your DH to give it to you.

13Saren · 23/12/2014 22:21

I honestly and truly am finding it very hard to see why people would be furious to get household goods for a present.

I would be happy for other people to give me household goods for a present but not DH as he would get as much use out of as me.

Apatite1 · 23/12/2014 22:21

We buy household appliances as and when needed so I'd be very angry if one turned up as a Christmas present!

tiggy2610 · 23/12/2014 22:25

Last year DH got me a dyson ball animal and I was ecstatic Blush I spent ages rolling it around the house and marvelling at all the spaces it could fit into.

But I am a bit of a neat freak and had wanted a new Hoover for ages, DH had been telling me we couldn't afford a dyson since around July so I was genuinely excited when I got one.

KERALA1 · 23/12/2014 22:27

As a teenager my friends dad got her mum a Hoover for Christmas. She threw it through the French windows and divorced him. Think it might have been the last straw but our teenage selves were impressed...

Apatite1 · 23/12/2014 22:33

Well done that woman!

Gifts should be indulgent and special. Appliances are only acceptable if the recipients really want them and couldn't normally afford them themselves.

unlucky83 · 23/12/2014 22:41

I much prefer a practical present...and I love gadgets.
I can't decide which one I've bought this year I like best - my lithium battery drill driver, my cordless 40v hedgetrimmer or my 12v cordless stick vac - or maybe my window vac!
I wouldn't mind a good cordless hoover...but don't like either the gtech airram or the dyson animal (one you can't do the edges - the other doesn't stand up on its own...)
I think I might be quite difficult...
I'd rather not have a present than have something I don't need or want or isn't right. And we only really give each other them to keep the DCs happy.
I often tell DP what I want - maybe even buy it myself...learned years ago to be very specific - one year for my birthday I wanted a new tool box (and a spanner set) - he got me a tiny crap tool box (and some okish spanners)...that Christmas I told him exactly what model of big tool box I wanted - he got the assistant in B&Q to talk to me on the phone to check it was the right one!
Otherwise I often end up giving things to the charity shop/raffles etc - one year he gave me about 10 different cheap gifts - ranging from perfume to a magic trick set, one year he gave me a pair of WHITE slippers - in this house they would have been wrecked within a day...I had to practise my pleased face ...then even worse DD2 realised something in a raffle was one of my presents...whoops!
He is the complete opposite - likes useless clutter! One year I got him heavy duty battery leads (for his car and his boat) and he was most unimpressed!
This year I'm having a Hudl2! (bought with tesco vouchers - for DD1 if I couldn't get her laptop fixed...) and a professional fine conical strainer (chinois). I don't know what I've got him yet - still waiting for him to give it to me to wrap!!!
I think I might know where I get my ingratitude from
Many years ago we DCs saved up and bought my DM (and DF) a crystal vase for their 17th wedding anniversary (they have just celebrated their 50th!)...at the time it was a lot for us to spend ...first thing my DM said was it's nice but I'd rather have had a liquidiser.
Another year can't remember what DF had got her - perfume or jewelery and she said she'd have preferred a holey spoon (They'd bought a new utensil set earlier in the year -apparently the holey spoon was useless!)

AcrossthePond55 · 24/12/2014 02:45

I explained to DH many, many years ago that anything that PLUGS IN is not a good present to give your beloved Xmas Grin. Unless of course, she's requested it. He's only deviated from that rule to surprise me with my first mobile phone back in the 90s and an iPad a few years ago.

18675ag · 24/12/2014 03:33

A Hoover! Id have to kill him if oh bought me a
Hoover for,Xmas

Whippet81 · 24/12/2014 05:53

I think there's a difference between a 'gadget' and an 'appliance' though?

I have bought my dad an attachment for his KMix - he doesn't NEED it but he loves cooking - people saying they love cooking then being bought ice cream makers, cupcake stuff is different to me than say a toaster for the family as making toast isn't a hobby.

If no dust existed I doubt many people would be wringing their hands about there being no need for hoovering now IYSWIM.

I say this as someone who when asked what present I would like after being unwell promptly asked for a dustbin for my pony's feed. Made up I was - but I had asked for it and had eyes rolled at me as he was thinking more along the perfume line.