I appreciate that people have taken time to think what I would like and then acted on that, but it’s been a huge swing and a miss.
Out of the 7 presents, 5 were clothing items, 1 was something my wife wanted (not me), and the last was actually something I had been mentioning I had wanted for a while, so that was a silver lining.
When it comes to clothing and fashion, that is not me. I’d rather wear a £10 t-shirt from some high street chain, than whatever emperor’s new clothes rubbish is being pushed by the designer brands. On top of that, I have a young child, so it’s not uncommon for there to be food, spit, mess etc. on me at a given time. I don’t want to get that on my nice clothes, so I just wear old sports t-shirts most of the time.
Maybe they’re telling me I should change my style? But I’m happy with my style, I dress for comfort and practicality over looks. I don’t care what strangers on the street think of how I dress.
On top of that, 1 of the clothing items was smart, suit-like, work trousers… I’m in the office maybe once a week, and even then I normally wear smart casual attire, nice jeans, chinos, etc.
Then there’s the joint present my wife and I got. I appreciate it was expensive, but it’s something my wife has been raving about since she saw it, and I don’t really have any interest in it. At least she’ll be happy I suppose.
What I think disappoints me the most is I saw all the effort my wife and I were putting in for my family members, coming up with ideas based on their interests and things they may not think about, so I was excited for her presents for me expecting a similar level of thought, but it was just more clothes; some nice printed t-shirts, but I’m not going to wear them much, due to the aforementioned messy nature of having a young child.
I hope I managed to hide my disappointment. The only saving grace was the fact I was cooking Christmas dinner at the same time, so I could go out to the kitchen and “check on the veg” to compose myself and come back.
As an adult, I never expect someone will get something I want or that I can really figure out what someone else wants. It’s not like when we were kids. You generally have your own money to get what you want now or the items are too expensive to be a gift anyway. The gift giving is just supposed to be something fun to do, not necessarily the content of the gifts themselves.
I wonder if maybe you could set up some sort of white elephant exchange some time in the future? I’ve wanted to do something like that with my family, but my mom doesn’t seem to be entirely on board. If you have enough people, it’s fun to do and then you don’t really have to worry about what someone may or may not like.
The fact that you were so distressed that you had to leave the room is a bit concerning to hear though tbh. Feels very entitled.