Sending presents for children directly to your home before wrapping

[Luckymummyx3]

i have a wonderful friend who I’ve known for 15+ years. She’s one of my best friends. She now lives a good 4/5hrs away by car due to relocating. She always remembers to send my kids birthday presents/Christmas presents and I do the same for hers. However in the last year, she has started ordering them directly to be delivered to my home rather than ordering something and then wrapping and posting it. So now when I receive the item, in order for it to feel like a present for the child, I now have to wrap it. This really annoys me as I have enough of my own wrapping at birthdays and Christmas. If I’m honest, I’d rather she didn’t bother and just send a card. It kind of feels like just buying something for the sake of it, rather than for the child’s enjoyment? Or am I overthinking?AIBU? Do I say something and if so, how without sounding ungrateful?!

All my relatives started doing this and it really annoyed me too. I basically got lumped with all the wrapping at Xmas. It feels lazy and entitled to me. I don’t appreciate it at all, especially when often the gifts are totally thoughtless Amazon crap.

There is no law that a gift has to be wrapped in glittery paper and how many children would notice or care about wrapping? Opening a cardboard box can be just as exciting.

If you resent wrapping just don't do it. I use reusable wrapping bags at Christmas or just chuck things in gift bags I've kept. Or just give in the cardboard box. No need for a conversation or stress. Just make the change.

She's doing a nice thing so I would suck it up. How many presents? Presumably just a few each year?

You don’t actually need to wrap the gift yourself. Surely, it’s just as much fun for your child when opening the parcel?

Wow, how lucky you are to have a human being that cares enough to send a gift.

My child’s aunties and uncles have just done this and I quickly wrapped them. It took a minute per gift.

Kids love getting post don't they ? .I think getting a parcel addressed to them must be more "exciting " than a wrapped gift.

I don't think the relatives are the ones being lazy and entitled here. Do you?

You sound ungrateful as well.

I mean, just how hard is it to just give your children the box or even put it into a gift bag?

Just ask them to stop sending presents then you won't have this "problem".

You can’t say anything as you are being totally unreasonable. Do you really expect her to pay postage to you just because you want it wrapped? Get a grip

We get this with family as we're all spread about. It does annoy me but at the same time it's silly to pay two lots of postings costs just to wrap something, so I suck it up.

Hate this. Pressing a few buttins on amazon is hardly showing great effort. Buying the gift, wrapping it and sending it does.

Gosh, you also sound ungrateful and lazy. You do realise that with the closure of so many post offices it is really not so easy to post stuff these days?

I think you are being terribly unreasonable about this. It isn't exactly difficult to put something into a gift bag.

Perhaps you would rather your relatives don't bother at all?

YABVU.

Apart from anything else we happen to be in a climate/fuel crisis. Having a present delivered to one address just so it can be wrapped and then make another road trip is not better for the environment than the present making one trip is it?

If this is a problem, ask her not to send presents? YABU to moan about it.

She's doing a nice thing for your kid. Be happy you have friends like that.

I think you're being a bit unreasonable really.

She thinks about your DC.
She sources a present they would like.
She buy it.
She has it shipped to your door.

You feel umbrage that you then wrap it before giving it to them? That's the important bit?

Don't wrap it? Buy 10 gift bags from Card Factory at about £1 each and there's your next 10 occasions sorted.

I'd adore someone sending presents to my home to ensure DC still got something if they knew they couldn't get there. So very thoughtful.

Bit different if it was DM who lives 15 mins away and is round regularly. But this seems a very good solution for a friend who's 5hrs away but wants to treat your DC .

We really need a humbug/Grinch emoji this time of year

A waste of time, fuel and money to have it delivered to her then re delivered to you!

You should tell her how you feel. Good luck, don’t hold your breath for future gifts.

I think it's hugely cheeky and I don't like those myself either. I understand it's expensive to have things gift wrapped by the companies you buy from - but if you don't do that then you should buy some cheap gifts bags and bows from Amazon and send them as well. At least then the recipient doesn't have the extra aggravation of wrapping for you.

I get where you are coming from.

Most of my in laws ask us for a list of things my DC might like - they don't know them well enough to select gifts themselves. So I spend time putting together lists with links, for a range of budgets. Then they buy the first thing on the list and have them delivered to us unwrapped. They expect them to be wrapped because they want us to video call them so they can watch the kids open the presents. The kids are grateful and always thank them.

For me, it's the lack of effort and care rather than the additonal wrapping. Zero thought goes into it, I'd really rather they didn't bother.

I put effort into buying thoughtful gifts, wrapping them, writing cards and posting them. Yes, I could just have them delivered directly but I would hate anyone to feel that their gift was just an admin task to be ticked off. That's what their gifts for my DC feel like.

A couple of more distant family members choose lovely gifts (my kids are not fussy children, they love everything), always sending them wrapped. They also send little token gifts like sweeties for Halloween or Easter eggs. I feel overwhelmingly grateful that they think so much of my DC and went to so much effort to post something to them.

You are coming off a bit ungrateful tbh OP. I do think your friend should order things to be gift wrapped where possible, but it isn't always. If I were you I'd just stick things into gift bags.

Buy a gift bag and reuse it every single time OR don’t wrap it. I wouldn’t make this a stress of any sort. It wasn’t sent wrapped so it wouldn’t be given wrapped in my house!

Don't most people have a collection of gift bags already?

I keep gift bags from presents people have given to me (and DH and DD), then reuse them.

Or do people throw them away?

Putting a present in a gift bag is hardly "extra aggravation"

How do people who can't be bothered to put a gift that has been posted to their address get through life? It must be exhausting to find something as trivial as this an issue.

The assumption that everyone has a post office near them that is open when they aren't working amazes me as well.

There are some really ungrateful posters on this thread. They sound like hard work.

'hugely cheeky'
'extra aggravation of wrapping'

😂😂😂

This place sometimes. Honestly.

We've previously been given Amazon gifts where the giver has selected the wrap option with a reusable fabric gift bag. So I just put it in one of those.