Gift wrapping other people’s presents

[GordonsAliveAndEatsPies]

Inspired by another thread though only something small but yesterday my husband got a message from his DM basically angling for him to wrap DC’s presents when they arrive. He didn’t reply as we were out so in fairness to DM she then sent curt message to say she would get them gift wrapped by the shop (unlike the thread where ex DH just sent them over to his ex to do the job) but it did make me think, is this a thing now? Expecting others to pick up the tasks people don’t want to do (or pay for?). For context, MIL is just the type of person who will be extremely annoyed she had to pay for gift wrap as opposed to us doing it for free.

Does anyone else have any Christmas cheeky fucker stories?

@GordonsAliveAndEatsPies

Ah well maybe it’s history that’s clouding my judgement then. I can’t remember the last time she didn’t look to land us with the bill even when perfectly reasonable for her to contribute (like when she walks off when the bill arrived for a meal out tho she has eaten and drink us out of house of home for a week or expecting us to get £200 worth of shopping when we arrive at hers) so I am being utterly petty but feel it’s just typical.

Bit of a drip feed there.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to send the gift to be wrapped there. £3 is extortionate, especially if it’s more than one present. I used to wrap my dad’s presents to my mum when I lived at home. I was happy to do it but he does plenty of stuff for me too.

It sounds like it’s added to a list of things that irritate you about your MIL though.

I know you can tick the gift option at checkout on some websites but I'm not sure it's actually a giftwrapping service, more that they just leave the price off?

I don't know of any way I'd be able to get a present gift wrapped if I was sending it directly to the recipient's address via the internet.

That said, if your MIL lives locally enough to wrap and drop over herself then I think she should have done that rather than expecting your DH to do it. I hate wrapping so would hate someone to ask me to do it for them if it wasn't really necessary.

I actually quite like gift wrapping, but I used to do it for work and I find it quite satisfying- I'm weird! I do my dad's wrapping since I also do his Christmas shopping for my mum (he's in his 80s and clueless and non techy) so the things come to my house but DP does his own wrapping and I try to keep it that way. He's never actually presumed I will do it for him or even asked me to despite it stressing him out. I'm actually going to suggest he does Amazon gift wrap stuff in future and that we just get a job lot of labels and gift bags so he can keep track of who gets what and hide any obvious branding. There will always be wrapping stuff around for emergencies.

I think I do have a festive CF though- although I enabled it so can't complain. DP, my parents and other friends are really angry about this though. I wrapped my Christmas presents from my best friend this year, even though I'd seen them by opening the parcels. She never picks the gift wrap option on Amazon! She also got me something which didn't go down too well with others and since she'd announced her gift intentions, parcels were opened since it wasn't a surprise to me and DP couldn't believe she'd followed through with her idea. I rewrapped since they're still for Christmas so I won't touch them til then anyway. I'm not bothered although I have no use for the items - actually a bit uncomfortable with them but accept them in the spirit intended. DP, My parents and other non mutual friends are not impressed and lack of gift wrap added fuel...

YANBU

Expecting your ex to do it when you could easily do it yourself is ridiculous.

Expecting the child’s parents to do it when the alternative would be expensive gift wrap from the shop is reasonable.

Amazon charged £4 to gift wrap a book. I only paid it because it wasn’t much more than I’d pay for postage to send it after wrapping it myself and the person I was sending it to always pays for gift wrap on things they send me.

Amazon gift wrapping is extortionate for what you get.
We won't be seeing any family as none are nearby or in our tier. We've bought everything online and addresses each item to another household member for them to wrap for the recipient - sent mums present to dad and dad's to mum, nieces presents to SiL. It's not cheeky at all - they've done the same with our gifts so the effort of wrapping all events out.
Paying £3 to wrap each single item would have added more than £50 to my shopping, and also used up tons of non recyclable gift bags.

Sorry I meant YABU

How is it drama if it’s true? I still don’t get why other people are happy for jobs to be offloaded onto them but then maybe that’s why I can’t contribute properly to any CF threads. Anyone of that tendency knows they would get short shrift!

I don't mind the gift wrapping when it's sent from far away etc. But when MIL/FIL are staying with us and Im' still the person buying, and wrapping, the children's gifts from them... yes, then I get annoyed.

@Bibidy - do you never use Amazon? You can (usually) tick a box that the present is a gift, they leave off the price and print a message from you on a little slip of paper for free. You can choose to add giftwrap for £4 - this is usually a reusable gift bag made of blue fabric. I’ve seen similar options on other websites.

The drama is in the exaggeration - and helping out your mother by saving her £4 and taking 30 seconds to make a child's gift look nice is not a "job". It's just something nice you can do in unusual times.

It sounds to me like your DH has chosen a wife that treats people as his mother does (not unusual 🤣) - she gave him "short shrift" for reading and not replying to her message!

[quote Grooticle]@Bibidy - do you never use Amazon? You can (usually) tick a box that the present is a gift, they leave off the price and print a message from you on a little slip of paper for free. You can choose to add giftwrap for £4 - this is usually a reusable gift bag made of blue fabric. I’ve seen similar options on other websites.[/quote]
No I try and avoid Amazon, but knew you can tick your purchase to be a gift on there and some other places - didn't realise you could actually get gift wrap though! That's handy, though seems pricey.

Exaggeration means go beyond the limits of the truth. It’s truth therefore not exaggeration. If you are saying it’s not relevant, that’s different and I kinda get that, tho it was more about showing that this isn’t a little benign old lady who just helps and I am being all mean by giving her leeway in unprecedented times.

I have accepted I am in the complete minority here, tho I have spent my life not assuming others can do something I can do perfectly well myself and I would put this is in that category, hence the lack of understanding.

user1493413286 my MIL has taken to doing this for the last couple of years, she says it’s because she doesn’t know what to get them but she sees them every week as she minds them after school, she could just ask them. I don’t live near my family so they also send things for me to wrap and to be honest it all adds up to extra things I just don’t want to think about at this time of year. Mil always says how stress free her Xmas is so I assume she must do this for all her grandchildren.

This year I’ve told my dc that it’s me that buys her presents because I just came out and asked them what they wanted nanny to get them. I’ve said next year they can just have the money to go shopping with and they were both pretty happy with that. Dp and I both do retail work, his is a bit different, so we only get a day or two off for Christmas and once the kids are off school I have to switch my shifts to late nights so that one of us is home with them and I really can’t be arsed anymore doing other people’s leg work. And I know it sounds ungrateful but I have actually asked people to stop buying for the dcs because they end up with too much but people just seem to feel they have to give something.

"we are running a business until Christmas and I am quite heavily pregnant meaning we are somewhat starting from scratch having kept nothing as it was supposedly medically impossible."

Drama

"eaten and drink us out of house of home for a week"

More drama

"expecting us to get £200 worth of shopping when we arrive at hers"

Exaggeration

"jobs to be offloaded onto them"

Drama. It's 30 seconds of wrapping not decorating a bedroom

"I have spent my life not assuming others can do something I can do perfectly well myself"

She asked her Son to do her a small favour. That's all. A small favour. Complete drama

Does repeating the same thing over and over make you believe things are true in the real world too?

I think you are making too big a deal of this. I certainly wouldn't expect a relative to use a gift-wrapping service when I can do it for them. Just ask her for the cost of the wrapping if you feel it is too much for you to spend from your own pocket. As for being pregnant and running a business, seriously, how much time is it going to take to wrap a few presents?

I buy presents on behalf of a relative who struggles to wrap properly so I show them the present and then wrap it on their behalf. I don't ask for the cost of the giftwrap. Sometimes they ask me how much it was and pay for it, other times they don't. It's no big deal (although I would ask if It couldn't afford to do it).

I get the impression you just don't like your MIL or have other issues with her. Why not communicate and sort things out nicely instead?

It’s not really CF considering these are gifts she’s buying for your children!

Why do you keep talking about truth? And definitions?

You are being dramatic. She asked a reasonable favour of your husband. Not you. Yet you started a thread on it! He's not pregnant and anyway, pregnant women wrap presents too.

To call her a CF is exaggeration even. Bizarre

Unless the gift is being sent directly to you from the shop I'd expect it gift wrapped. I just ordered things off the local amazon for family in another country. Gift wrapping was £3.50 each gift, so I got the ones for the person who the box was addressed to wrapped, then asked her to wrap the other presents (two for her own child and one for our sister). I don't think she would object to that!

I'm irritated that my DH's ex-MIL, my DSDs grandmother, knowing full well that I was off into hospital for an op this week, has chosen to send me all their Amazon gifts unwrapped, this week.

Not addressed to DH, addressed to me. For me to open and presumably deal with.

Clearly he's taken this job on, but he is now having to intercept and open every parcel of mine, on the possibility that it needs managing, which is fucking annoying.

She's retired, minted, and does fuck all for the kids - the least she could do is pull her finger out earlier than the week before Xmas, wrap them her fucking self or pay for the privilege

Humph

YANBU - it's more of those little wifeworky jobs that I do not have time or inclination to do. MIL tried this one year. Most years I work up until Christmas eve night. DP didn't do it either. The DC did not notice.

Yes and I accepted I was unreasonable posts about so go and try bait someone else now.

I think this year so many will be sending presents to those they can't see and I don't think that Amazon offers a gift wrapping service so the recipient will need to do it. It's really not that much of a chore, I love wrapping presents, I used to do all of ours other than when the children were very small and we wrapped every tiny thing to pad their stockings so OH did some too.

I often do this with gifts for friend's children if I'm not seeing them, most live in another city. Obviously if I'm seeing them a month or so before birthday/Christmas I will take the wrapped gift with me. My friends would not expect me to pay £3+ for gift wrapping and are appreciative of the fact I have bought a gift for their child

My dd offered to wrap the gifts I bought for my 2 dgs. I think she likes to look at the gifts first to check no plastic crap and only one chocolate reindeer 🦌. It suits me though.