AIBU to be frustrated by repeated wolf-themed gifts?

[Herecomes]

I am an animal lover, I am especially a dog person meaning I like wolves too if we’re talking wildlife. My mum has taken this to mean I’m obsessed with wolves - I’m really not.

Every year at Christmas she buys me something wolf related … it started off as huge framed pictures (often featuring native Americans too 😂) and in the end I had so many massive pictures piled up the spare room that I made a point of telling her I am no longer buying wall pictures as I don’t like a lot of stuff on the walls and I’ve ran out of space. She got the hint and stopped buying me pictures … instead she started buying me huge blankets, fleece bed covers etc, again featuring wolves howling at the moon, native Americans, wolf eyes staring out of dark trees etc 🤦‍♀️

I ended up with a big pile of fleece blankets that were just sat there collecting dust. In the end I asked her if she wanted any blankets as I’m getting rid of loads as I have far too many and don’t use them. She got the hint.

Now … as my birthday this year was approaching she asked me what size clothing I was. I told her. I joked to DH that I’ll probably end up with a wolf fleece jacket for my birthday … I was wrong … I got 3 wolf fleece jackets for my birthday.

I don’t get it!!! I’m in my 30s, she sees me every week … surely she can see that I don’t wear stuff like this?? It was funny at first but now its getting frustrating. She gets upset and offended easily so I’ve tried to treat lightly but come on …

What would you do?? Or do I just carry on accepting this stuff and lying that I like it to keep the peace?

You could always get a real wolf. Then she'd be too scared to come round and see what you've done with all her gifts. I imagine that a wolf would like a nice soft wolf-blanket bed....

(do not do this. Wolves do not make good pets).

This is exactly my mum!! The last thing she thought I was obsessed with was skulls (because I bought a skull air freshener for the car as it was on offer once 😂). Years of gothic skulls, pictures of skulls, t-shirts with skulls, skull pencils, skull cushions … I told her i had a lot of skull stuff now but I really liked this dusky pink throw in Dunelm … she thought be a hot pink throw from god knows where and a load of skull things as extras 🤦‍♀️😂

Yes do not mention owls! I got years of owl gifts from one particular person and I don’t know why. I got a cuddly toy at 30 years old! I like animals in general but I rarely ever think about owls… who knew so many things are made with owls on? Perhaps mention something more obscure… moles, tapirs, binturongs??

Have there been any news stories about wolves recently? Maybe you could drop into conversation that although you DID love wolves you have seen they did xyz and now you feel differently about them. You need to have a new special interest to replace it with though.

I had this with owl gifts. I can’t stand them now.

I don’t own one but I do really like the wolf fleeces. Maybe I should become a wolf fleece person.

Who cares if she gets offended?!!! She doesn’t give a shit she’s offending YOU with them does she??

This is what I'd do op, just say you've moved on. But be very careful about what you say you now like!

i remember my uncles wife had a huge pig theme going on in her house. They were everywhere. When they got divorced she said one thing she was excited about was getting away from “the fucking pigs”. Turns out she bought one pig teapot herself … someone saw it and bought her another one to go with it. People saw she had two pig teapots so bought her pig tea towels … and from there it just snowballed 😂 she refused to take any of them with her, including the one she originally bought herself 😂

This is how you're going to end up if you don't tell your mum outright you don't want wolf stuff.

People will spot one thing and think you like it and on it goes.

I'm sorry because it sounds like a nightmare but that did genuinely make me laugh. Also when I read your thread title I was thought it was going to be about gifts featuring the 90s Gladiator with the mullet. Not sure which would be a better deal!

Can you claim your new "obsession" is something incredibly rare and niche, like the African Goliath Beatle or something that isn't readily reproduced in merch?

This belongs on the The wolf appreciation society on Facebook 😂 get googling 😂😂

When my dd was at high school she made the mistake of telling one of her friends she liked Dr Who aka David Tennant. For her 21st said friend got her a small remote controlled dalek and a sonic screwdriver, after buying her Dr who themed stuff for all the intervening years. She did eventually tell her she'd gone off it. Bit different to you mum but it's ridiculous.

This made me laugh op, because a similar thing happened to my aunt, only it was pigs. She had multiple pig figurines (the kind of cartoony ones) and had to put a stop to it in the end as she had so many! I’m not sure who or what started it, but the whole family got on the bandwagon and she was getting them from everybody at one point!

I just say what I want or if there’s nothing in particular, ask for vouchers for somewhere I spend frequently, like JL.

Love that you’ve had so much that you’ve had to invent the term ‘robinshite’ 🤣

I think you need to repay the favour OP. Start getting your DM wolf stuff for every birthday and Xmas and she’ll soon stop.

Or she might regift it back to the OP!

I’d just be honest. Say you used to love all the wolf stuff so she doesn’t feel bad about previous gifts, but say you’ve gone off wolf merchandise now and feel you have enough. Nearer to Christmas and birthday maybe send her an Amazon wish list and ask her to do one too for you, so it doesn’t seem picky. My mum used to receive so much hedgehog stuff and got fed up and just told us. It’s a family joke now

My sister gets given a lot of highland cow stuff and I think she regrets ever mentioning that she likes them

I agree that “I’ve gone off wolves now” is the way to go - it puts a stop to it without criticising the gifts she’s given you so far.

My mum is similar. I’m not somebody who’s into beauty products, but I once got a sample of make-up remover that was really good, so when she asked me for Christmas present ideas, I asked for a full-sized bottle of it. That was enough for her to decide that I was obsessed with that particular brand and gift me beauty products for years. But she misremembered the brand and all the stuff she got me was from a different one that started with the same letter.

At work we would take it in turns to do birthday collections and gift buying. I duly took my turn, when I asked if anyone know what to buy I was told that she loves owls buy her something to do with owls. I didn’t, I bought some lovely gin glasses in the colour she’d just done her kitchen and some gin. She took me to one side and thanked me profusely for not getting anything with owls on, lol.

I have the similar issue with my in-laws. They have it in their heads Im obsessed with deers. I’m an animal lover of course but I have no idea why they’re trying to make deers the subject of every gift. I have a rather expensive decorative deer head on my lounge wall now that I didn’t particularly want..

I can remember my grandma telling my mum (her daughter) that she really didn’t like lavender scented things. My mum genuinely thought she did and had been buying her soaps and body lotions and stuff for years, and she was actually mortified. Turns out my grandma liked sandalwood and patchouli and similar spicy scents. She was about as far from a little lavender scented old lady as you could imagine so I don’t know where my mum got it from!

I so wish there was still a laugh emoji!🤣

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I love David Bowie (my user name is a clue!) but oh lordly some of the stuff I have received as gifts have been mind-bogglingly awful. The thing is with Bowie, some of the stuff such as the well witten books, the actual music and the occasional very subtle piece of jewellery, have been gratefully received. However, I have been gifted a truly hideous bag, some ugly kitchen stuff, a Bowie themed chopping board ffs! and a cheapo colouring book. I put a stop to it by saying I was very grateful but was running out of space to store it all.