I am 30. I am the oldest of my ‘generation’ of the family. My younger cousins are as young as 7. Even though I am an adult (and have just had my own DC)- I am very much seen as a child.
My aunts and uncles have always brought me gifts (minus one aunt who is very vocal about presents only being for kids) as my parents buy for their younger, multiple children. My mum has always told me that I don’t need to worry about buying for my aunts/uncles (I have a lot of them) as they see it as just buying for ‘the kids’ like they do. When I saw aunts/uncles over Christmas parties, I’d always bring chocs/flowers/wine to say thanks for hosting.
Anyway- fast forward to this year and I have my own child. My mum has just dropped a sack of presents off for my DD (who doesn’t know it’s Christmas) from the aunts and uncles. They’ve even still bought gifts for me!!!
I feel horribly horribly rude that they haven’t bought them anything and I’m wondering if I need to empty my wine cupboard, decant into gift bags and hand out at lunch tomorrow. But at the same time, I don’t want the pressure of buying for 6+ sets of aunts and uncles. It adds up. Nor do I expect anything grom
them. My family are just big gift givers.
What do I do?
I was thinking of thanking them graciously for my gifts but saying I didn’t expect anything as new DD is here, and maybe getting my parents to communicate that they no longer need to buy for me? And then wine/chocs when I see them over Xmas?
I feel horribly awkward and it’s stopping me from sleeping. I get anxiety when I feel like I have been rude or upset someone.