To think some posts are very ungrateful?

[EMacCoffee]

I've seen about 4 threads tonight all talking about rubbish Christmas presents.

Do people not realise people have actually spent time and put thought into these gifts? I personally think then going to rant about it on the internet is very ungrateful.

I can't be the only one who hates seeing thsese threads at Christmas? I see it on other social media as well like Twitter and Facebook.

I liked the one yesterday who called her family ‘callous’ for gifting her a trip to centreparks

Totally agree with you OP

Not always. Which is the point.

Exactly.

Gift giving is part of life as a grown up. People need to knuckle down and learn how to do it well

And this sense of entitlement is exactly what is wrong with the world. Gift giving and receiving is a PRIVILEGE, nothing more, nothing less. Be grateful that this Christmas, you had a roof over your head, food on your table, and the relative security of knowing you weren't going to be bombed out of your home.

The rugby tickets poster received a lovely holiday. Her DH had told her dad he'd bought rugby tickets as her dad would have told her what the surprise was.

I missed that update! Is that what happened? I can’t find the thread.

I've given both these items as gifts. The toothbrush to my husband and the vacuum to an aunt. Both recents were genuinely pleased.

Presumably you didn’t give the vacuum as a snide “clean your house” gift to your Aunt

The only thoughtfulness on the part of the person who gave me a hoover and cleaning supplies when I’ve so much going on was a thought of how much of a PA dig they could have in a situation where I’m too well mannered to say anything in front of my kids on Christmas Day

Some gifts are rant worthy because they’re not nice

I missed the end if the rugby ticket thread too. I hope OP managed not to fall over herself laughing / apologising !!

As for learning to be grateful for deliberately shit gifts.... I hope you never fall into stbxPoisonousSILs sphere of hatred. I received a nylon leopard print sweatshirt, about size 20. The follow year the free gift you get with your first catalogue order, then a plastic goose thing, to go with my late grandmother's ceramic geese and, in a final fling of imaginative nastiness, a mini skirt to match the sweatshirt.

And she always asked why I wasn't wearing the bloody things whenever we went out somewhere nice!

No gratitude from me, nope!

But I did take great delight vin always buying her stuff she really liked... seeing her struggle with liking and not wanting to was amusing!

For me, I am more likely to not be grateful if it seems the giver has put little effort or thought in, rather than that I just don’t like it or it’s cheap.

Example I was given some Next perfume by person 1 who doesn’t earn much but was very excited to give me the gift and I know she put thought into it and I am grateful even though I don’t like the scent and won’t use it. I am sorry to say I will give it away as I won’t wear it.

I was given some chocolates by person 2. They are from a chocolate shop we both like and she probably spent a similar amount as person 1 but I felt she put no thought into it as she bought me chocolates from the same shop for something else recently and it seemed to me she’d just bought something as she felt obligated as I’d given something to her. I was not as grateful as I probably should have been.

It's thoughless gifts that get me, my in laws are expert at it! chocolates that have been in the back of the cupboard and are months out of date. Gifts from poundshop, box of supermarket biscuits that I've seen at checkout for £2.50. Am I ungrateful , tbh yes! I think they've just thought when at supermarket checkout drat need to get runner duck something this will do!! Feels like a snub particularly if I've put a lot of thought effort and expense into gifts for their family. Mil sends DGC a box of Christmas crackers every year, nothing else, shes affluent so it's not like she can't afford to buy presents, I always send her a nice gift , slippers and pyjamas etc, this year I decided not to bother, she phoned up on Xmas day to say that father Christmas hadn't bought her any presents, annoyingly I felt guilty !

@CaptainButtock that one made me laugh, so melodramatic. Tbf though It's for Feb so they'll be freezing!

have a search on ebay for unwanted Christmas gifts,theres hundreds and hundreds

we do this every Christmas day evening and have some great bargains

The only post I’ve seen about a shit present was from someone whose boyfriend had put zero time and effort into it. It’s not ungrateful to be pissed off that someone who is meant to be your partner has spent all of 2 minutes and £8 on a generic gift in Boots, whilst you have put loads of thought and effort (not necessarily cash) into something you think they’ll love. What should that poster have been grateful for? She couldn’t be grateful for the effort, thought or expense because there hadn’t been any!

This.

My parents gave me a bottle of the cheapest red wine Waitrose do. It went out of date on 1/9/19 - I only realised after opening it to make gravy. It was rancid!

They know full well I'm a single parent and that it was the only gift I had at Christmas m. But yeah, they had to recycle something they didn't like; they don't drink red wine so it will have been gifted to them and stashed in a cupboard.

It's not a case of money. My mom just inherited £145k, their mortgage is paid and dad still works full time. I know exactly how much thought went into my gift. It's shit, but I thanked them and tbh will remember how shit it made me feel. I'd honestly rather have had nothing, than that.

But it’s an anonymous Internet forum, it’s the perfect place to rant about things you can’t say in real life. Just because other people are worse off doesn’t mean you can’t feel irritated by minor things in life and those feelings are still valid.

I think that people who complain that a gift, which someone spent time and effort buying them, and which exists, is too "thoughtless" or not "good enough" sound a bit like a giant baby.

If you're a grown up you are more fortunate than most grown ups on planet earth if anyone picks out and gives you even one gift on your birthday or at Christmas, it's not a bloody entitlement ffs