AIBU to expect grandparents to wrap birthday presents for young children?

[Stoptheworldiwanttogetoff]

I feel like this is a really petty issue to be annoyed about but my partners parents never wrap birthday presents for my DC. They are 8 and 5 years old now but this has always been the case and for me I feel like part of the excitement of birthday presents for kids is the unwrapping. They just shove the presents in a bag and give them to my DC some time near their birthday so if it’s a few days beforehand they can see exactly what they have got so no lovely surprise on their actual birthday. My DPs siblings do the same thing so not sure if it’s a family thing. All my family wrap presents and I thought it was just standard practice. As an adult I wouldn’t really care but for children I just feel like it takes away some of the magic of birthdays. It comes across to me that they just can’t be arsed. Before people start jumping on about being ungrateful blah blah blah, I am grateful that they get my DC gifts and my DC will always thank them for whatever they are gifted. And to cover any other bases, they are retired so not that they don’t have time and they are well off so not that they can’t afford wrapping paper and tape! They make very little effort with my DC anyway so maybe that is a factor in how I feel about this but please let me know if I am being unreasonable for expecting presents for young children to be wrapped

We don't wrap anything within my extended family. Never have, never will and it doesn't bother any of us. These days, we give tokens anyway or transfer money.
My dear SIL on the other hand - she's an expert wrapper but our children when small would just rip the paper off and then it was straight on the open fire. What a waste.

Same here. Wrapping a gift in some paper, especially paper linked to what the DC like, is what we all do in our families. I’ve got rolls of football and dinosaur paper for my DGNs.

I agree with you OP. Part of presents is the ceremony and the anticipation. Lazy and careless.

Many older people have problems wrapping (as always, not all, yes some people twice my age act half my age). Lots of people find paper and tape problematic for the environment, and some don't like wrapping fabric/other reusable stuff.

I always just put the presents in a gift bag, My GC like grandmas birthday bags.

Could you possibly receive them before they are given and wrap them yourself.

Some people just don’t like wrapping and are not good at it.

My lovely DD understands this of her DM and wraps for me.

But other than this huge misdemeanour, I am a good DGM and my DGC adore me.

@Stoptheworldiwanttogetoff it is genuinely just a case that they can’t be arsed!

So? So what? As I said in an earlier post, not everyone can be arsed and where’s the issue? I certainly can’t be arsed fucking around with paper and tape for any event. All my kids have known have been present bags from us/(& Santa at Xmas). None of them grew up to be in therapy of over it and it has not effected them in any way. So, I’m all for not being arsed with it🤷‍♀️. If people want to fluff around with wrapping then power to them but that expectation shouldn’t be inflicted on the rest of us.

I think they are missing an easy opportunity to make their generous gift even more impactful 🤷‍♀️

I wish I had as much time on my hands as you do to even consider that being a problem in the grand scheme of things in life!!

I think its incredibly lazy and lacks effort. I always wrap grandkids presents

Carrier bag or gift bag @Stoptheworldiwanttogetoff

She's not handing over a carrier bag. They're in gift bags, which seems a perfectly normal and reasonable way to give a gift to me.

Since you know what the whole family is like and it's to be expected why don't you wrap it or your husband if he's truly concerned

Gift bags are a thing. You're being unreasonable.

I agree that young children love unwrapping presents so it isn't quite the same excitement in a gift bag. I hate wrapping presents but do make an effort to do wrapping paper not a bag for young children.

That said, if our DCs grandparents are actually handing a gift over in person I'd always let DC open it in front of them, not make them save it for their actual birthday (we would keep presents that arrived in the post for the actual day).