Please reassure me this is totally odd - thank you cards

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

Disclaimer: I normally get on very well with my DM

.....however, she has one weakness - thank you cards. Which she basically thinks should be written ASAP. She's been like this all my life so I just do it and humour her. I have a DS2 and a DD1 and her and DF's friends have been very generous sending presents etc to the DC

I use touch note so it's not too much of a ball ache and saves us having phone conversations where she tells me that so and so was worried that I didn't receive their present as they hadn't heard anything from me. Despite me pointing out that she could have reassured them as she handed the fucking thing over two days earlier

Anyway.....last night, another friend of DM's gave her a Christmas decoration thing that she had made for me.

Said friend is currently up biding my aunt (DM's sister) and my DM and DF went out for dinner with them last night where this thing was ceremoniously handed over.

The friend is staying for about a week with my aunt and - for part of the week - aunt and friend will be staying with my cousin.

I said to DM that I would do a thank you card today - can't get better than that, I thought? Particularly as I have a 1 year old and a 2 year old and am 27 weeks pregnant

DM has just asked me how long a touch note card takes to arrive. I said about 2 - 3 days. DM thinks I should send the card to my cousin's house so that friend gets it ASAP!!!

I just looked and said to DM that surely the friend (ie DM!) could wait for one week to receive the card when she gets home - particularly as she gave the present to mum so knows it hasn't been lost in the post. Plus, my cousin would probably rightly think I was a right bloody weirdo for using her house as a postbox. And, if it was delayed in the post, she then has to send it on to the friend - which is a bit of a pain.

DM clearly thinks I am being very rude and mean. Please reassure me I'm not losing my marbles. I am 37 years old (but feel about 5) and dreading having to do the thank you cards for DC3 already

This fetish for thank you cards means that I now actually hate receiving them myself - particularly from children. I order most present on line so can clearly see if they have been delivered or not and I couldn't care less if I get a thank you card back or not

Wips

yes, for our wedding gifts, then new baby gifts & Baptism gifts (x7!) I did my fair share of handwriting the thank you cards.
but that was different because we also sent a photo with each card as a special memento of the occasion.

I am completely laughing at this thread!

Special mention to shodan and I'm glad to see its not just my DM with the fetish!

zingdrama Hating Christmas cards is a bit harsh isn't it

My mum is like this too! My siblings and I all live abroad and when we visit home we joke about having the thank you card prewritten. If. She doesn't have card in hand by the time our plane takes off she'll accuse us of treating the place like a hotel. Last time I even left money for them to go out for a meal!

When I had my first DS she came to visit with a suitcase full of presents from people I'd barely heard of but she hadn't kept the cards with the right presents do no idea who gave what. I wrote 37 generic thank you cards and she forged two because we forgot a few people.

Shakes
well, when you have to write near 100 (or more) you don't have a whole lot of love from them!
Anyway, DH is English, if he wants to do it it's up to him.

I say thank you but was brought up to say thank you rather than write thank you. Some people seem overly bothered about bits of paper.
If I've been staying with someone then I'll have thanked them and often bought them a gift before I left. A card is for thanks you can't do in person or by phone email or text.
As this annoys you I'd tell your mother to stop treating you like a child and trying to control how and when you say thank you as it is affecting your relationship.
I encourage my kids to say thank you buy they usually text or email, now my son has left home and is at college how and when he says thank you is his business.

Oh, please please do a Janet and Roy gift for your mother ! Maybe the gift could be a stationery set which includes thank you cards.

yes!!! Janet and Roy card!!
I'll do it!

maybe I'll make it out from Father Christmas, telling her she's been naughty bothering you.

I hate getting thank you cards from poor little children who'd rather be outside playing (or even sitting happily with an iPad). And then I feel guilty in ownership of it. Do I display it and keep thinking of their misery, or do I bin it and disregard their effort?

Your mum sounds absolutely puddled.