Well meant gifts that didn't hit the mark

[imnotthatkindofmum]

Here's a thread to post your disappointing gifts that you can't be disappointed with in real life! Let off a little steam without upsetting anyone!!

My lovely daughter bought me some novelty earrings. I never wear novelty earrings but she's so proud of them i have to wear them. She was so secured about me opening them but now I have to work out how little I can get away with wearing them so she doesn't realise I hate them!

Also DH only bought what was on my list. It was a cheap and simple list. I would have liked him to choose something he thought I would like. After 22 years not sure why I expect that though!

How can it be pointless? Thoughtless, maybe.
Just buy for yourself what you would have liked them to buy for you 🤷🏻‍♀️

My live in partner bought me a microwave for Christmas because ours was broken, obviously we are no longer together!

Do you still have the microwave or did they take it with them?

There’s no mystery as to where the flaming Wally is 😁
What an absolute idiot he is.

My friend gave me a pair of pyjamas. Apart from the fact that I told her a couple of months ago that I never wear pyjamas,I'm a nightie person,the bottoms of the pyjamas are shorts. I really really do not like wearing shorts at all. But I can't say anything,she's very sensitive and it will hurt her feelings. I really don't know where she got the idea that I'd be delighted with pyjamas with shorts. Thankfully it's not something that I will have to wear out and about,so she won't notice that I never wear them!

Another person who has convinced someone else they are too sensitive to be told when they are in the wrong, when in fact they are a sneaky, controlling person.

Sainsbury's own cotton wool pads... Every birthday & Christmas from my ILS 😫🤦🏽‍♀️

At least you got a microwave... I once mentioned that we needed new tea towels to not so DH.
They duly arrived neatly wrapped under the Christmas tree with a name tag addressed to me! No other presents

It's a family joke now, but at the time it was really hard not to show how upset I was.

BIL and SIL once bought me a plastic lazy Susan and six bags of Cheddars. BIL then ate half the Cheddars.

Most of my gifts were lovely, my only disappointment came from my teen kids. Both asked me what I wanted. I said to DS nice shampoo, the sort you would get from Superdrug but nicer than I buy ie John frieda/nicky Clark or some nice shower gel. Dd asked on 23, told her the same or some make up or nice face cream (I had asked her about a month ago for face cream).

DS got me a sweater with his face on and a grammatically wrong statement but the worst bit was it was XL, I’m a size 24 so it’s probably 3 times to small. DD who I had high hopes for got me a generic bath set (it was themed to a film series I liked) but came with a bath bomb (I don’t take baths), a body butter are rarely use and a key ring I won’t use either. The shower get will be used but it was £12.50 so feels a huge waste of money.

Oh I love this; so Dh isn’t a big fan of Christmas but this year he surpassed himself had a right go at me because I’d spent too much money on the children & dgs; I get it every year & this year I though ffs I’ve had enough so I’ve said you next year you do the whole fecking shebang; shopping; gifts; wrapping; cooking I’m doing nowt the daft sod has accepted my challenge I can’t wait just to watch the pig headed arse fall flat on his face and if I’m lucky he might remember to buy me gift as well first time in four years

Plastic lazy Susan's can be really useful. My mum has had one in her cupboard for 40 years and so I asked her for one Christmas last year. It's been brilliant !

Have we the same mother?! 🤣

Oh that is very funny. And has reminded me of something (which will out me to anyone who knows me IRL).

We have a huge week long sporting festival near us and have people take the piss every year by asking to stay. People we never hear from all year until July then ring and ask if they can stay. I have finally put my foot down about it, but we had friends of DH's parents land on us for 6 years in a row. 8 days a time. never did they bring a gift, or send a thank you (or even say a thank you often). One year they turned up and dumped an enormous watermelon on my stairs. I assumed it was - finally- my hostess gift. It wasn't. They ate it themselves over the course of a day or 2. No idea why i thought it was for me tbh.

That was also the year the wife spent alot of time criticising my housekeeping (the pillow cases did not match) and how I pruned my roses. It was also the last year I said yes to them coming to stay.

Regift them to her...for her birthday 😉

One of my friends does this every year.
Despite me almost begging for years on end that please could we just do token (say £5-£10) presents, suggesting that we perhaps give to a good cause of the donor's choice instead, a parcel arrives.
I'm genuinely not ungrateful, but l'm trying to have a huge clear out before downsizing in the (hopefully) near future.
Last year besides the stuff which was nice (ie, chocolate) - plastic cucumber eye pads which you put in the fridge (?) emery boards (which l don't use, l use a glass nail file), you get the idea. And nearly £9 for postage!
This year, their parcel included popcorn, two boxes (different ones) of hot chocolate (which l don't drink) and other sweet stuff that l don't like and wouldn't eat.
Fortunately that one arrived last week so l took those bits straight round to my friend who runs the local food bank, who was very grateful for it.
Also, from another friend, smellies (l can't use them, sensitive skin) and scented candles (ditto, l have asthma and they make me wheeze).
I'll have to take those to the foodbank and/or the charity shop.
It's very kind and well intentioned, but lt worries me that they're spending so much money on this stuff. And the postage!
I've even had conversations along these lines, only to be told "Oh, l know you're clearing out before you move, but....."
I honestly don't know what to say now. I've repeated myself ad nauseam, and still they come. Do l keep saying it, and risk more of the same, or be really blunt and risk offending?

DP (of 9 months) gifted me something to wear in the bedroom…for his benefit, not something I like. I think he will be my ex soon.

My DF has discovered temu so we all received temu crap, most of it unusable. I had asked for something in particular, sent him an Amazon link, he bought me a temu version which is just awful and won’t do what I want it to do. DM buys me fudge every year…..I don’t like fudge 😬.

I have a friend who is very intense about gifts for my birthday, her birthday, christmas, just because, my two DCs, her 3 Dcs. She lives in Australia and the postage is hideously expensive. (Amazon Australia isnt that good either IME). Every year I suggest we give it a rest because I find it expensive and exhausting but she says she just adores picking out gifts for us. This year i suggested money in a card and that went down like a cup of sick. It's wearing me out. I spent close to £100 last year on postage alone.

A colouring book that relates to one of my hobbies. I don't do colouring, aside from finding it dull and pointless I have arthritis in my hands and holding pens etc is painful.

roobyred
I'm so sorry, roobyred, l totally understand that, being single myself.
I'm sure it was well intentioned, but l don't think people even think about stuff like this.
I recently retired from work, and among my leaving presents was a 'dine out' gift card for a decent amount of money.
I don't have friends anywhere near where l live, my best friend is 300 miles away, the others also distant (closest is 60 miles away) and l rarely see them (hence me planning a move in the near future).
It was a very kind gesture but totally wasted on me.
I wouldn't dream of going out to eat on my own, for the reasons you mentioned, and certainly not to the places the dining card was for, mostly steakhouse type places (I've been veggie for over 30 years).
I actually gave it to someone else (who is always very generous, and l can't afford to reciprocate to that degree) for Christmas.
Not wanting to be ungrateful, but they'll never know, and l'd have hated to waste it.
Could you possibly ask if you could take your daughter along for the afternoon tea and pay the difference, if that's an option?

I hope you feel a bit better when you get her back home with you (hugs) xxx

You would all love my Christmas present ... another attack of cellulitis exactly 6 weeks after the last one (I have lymphodema and they are common)

BugsyMaroon
Oh god, what are we meant to do?
One of my friends sent a parcel to her sister at the other end of the country, a big box absolutely rammed with stuff for Christmas (handbag, perfume, pyjamas, god knows what else) I took her to the post office because she doesn't drive and the postage was over £30. It's ridiculously expensive, and my friend goes down there every couple of months! I'm afraid l'd have had to say l'll send you something but l'll have to bring the rest next time l come down (or have taken it the last time l went!) but obviously that's not an option for you!
My friend back home keeps saying "I want you to have things to open on Christmas Day" and l feel so ungrateful (thankfully she doesn't know).
Fortunately my best friend 'gets' it - she gives me things like photographs from happy times (and frames, sometimes), things that have memories and meaning.
It's not about the money for me, how much something cost, it's about what it means to me. That's everything.

I don't think this one was even well meant. It was just weird.
When l was with my ex husband, his brother and his wife (l'm pretty sure this was down to her) gave us, for Christmas, an Animal Rescue (or similar) ANNUAL. An actual kids annual.
We were in our thirties, with no children.
We'd spent £30 on their little one (this was in the 90s), plus presents for them and their two dogs.
They didn't even give us a pack of dog treats for ours.

What she was thinking, l have no idea.

Can you give them a sponsored goat/donkey/dogs trust dog/track a whale type thing? In the card write "in the spirit of downsizing & less material presents."

I honestly don't know what to do. For years now i have been gently suggesting... then more forcefully suggesting. If I do not send stuff back she would be so upset. And she has one more child than I do so it is more for me to remember and spend.

I'm going to Australia next month to see family and was planning on broaching the issue again. It's just nuts. One year when i was sick she sent me (from Australia!) a packet of smarties because she was not sure we got smarties in the UK. It cost her $12 in postage ffs! It's a nice thought, (I suppose) but in her mind everything has to be evenly reciprocated.