It can be low effort, passive-aggressive, insulting or derogatory towards your convictions.
My mother got me Rogaine for my birthday last year. Pretty rude and uncalled for I felt but now I’ve stopped cutting it and have the longest hair I’ve ever had so I guess she hit a nerve with that one
A broken propeller toy wrapped in a ripped up plastic grocery bag.
I always win this question hands down; my really big asshole NPD of a MIL gave me her very used and threadbare bathrobe as a present. Made a big point of telling me it was hers and she was going to give it to the Catholic thrift shop she volunteered at but then thought it would be a gift for me. It was only fit for the garbage can and had holes in it.
But giving people random trash is a thing she likes to do because she likes to be provocative and “stick poking” in the therapy description. She gave her only grandchild an old vitamin bottle filled with dish soap and a bubble wand she found on the ground in the park. No spending one whole dollar on her only grandchild, oh no, let’s just give her some garbage. And for my BIL who golfed, she walked the public golf course every day and picked up discarded golf tees, chipped and stained and half broken, filled a sandwich bag with them, and that was his present.
She likes to pretend she’s very poor but she’s not, and giving her family literal garbage is her way of trying to provoke a fight because she likes nothing better than to provoke a fight. That’s the only Christmas present she wants is to upset people and make them angry at her.
I have a zillion other horrible stories of her, but you get the gist.
I’ll toss a nice gift in the trash for you for your MIL to find.
It’s all she really wants.
I once got a picture of a really cool present from my dad, which he said was in the mail. Never got the present.
Maybe it got “porch pirated”. I thought I was immune from that until my things started disappearing.
I think I only ever received one good present.
I think the “worst” thing I ever got was a VR headset. It wasn’t a bad present per say and I really liked it at the time but unfortunately the VR space died pretty fast and it was completely useless soon after I got it.
Edit: it was a headset where you put your phone inside
Aw man those things were so cool! My dad actually got one of those for me as a gift when I was way younger, I forget for which occasion. Didn’t use it much tho cause later my grandma found out about it and stole it, throwing it away in the garbage. She doesn’t hate me or anything, she was just scared I’d get brain cancer and since nobody in the family ever believes her because of that crap she reads on facebook, that was her way of protecting me. Oh well.
Oh man, that sucks. I’m sorry. Anyway, the industry abandoned them pretty fast so…
Still had cool experiences. I think now a days you can use apps to turn your phone into a makeshift oculus quest and stream to your PC using Steam VR, so somewhat useful I think
Arkham Shadow just came out on VR and people are saying it rivals other games like HL: Alyx in terms of scope and quality.
I’m watching a playthrough right now and it’s blowing my mind how awesome it looks to actually be Batman
That’s great. The headset I was talking about was one where you put your phone inside. I should have said that first :(
My sister wanted me to be the Godfather to her children. She considered it a “gift.”
I’m an atheist. I told her explicitly “Hey, you remember I’m an atheist, right?” Part of this whole Godfather business is making a promise to raise them religiously if their parent dies. I thought I was being considerate and kind by being honest that I did not want to be a Godfather because I could not in good conscience make such a promise.
Nope, I’m the bad guy, not the person who knew I was atheist and decided to not respect that at all anyway by asking me to be a Godfather to begin with.
God parents are supposed to care for the children, if the parents die. I think you shouldn’t overthink it. If you’re willing to fill that role, then raise the kids however you think is best. Accept the role gracefully as it is an honor and your sister is showing she loves and trusts you. Leave it at that.
Yeah my siblings and friends also know i am an atheist, but that hasn’t stopped us from naming each other godparents. It is just a promise to look after the child if something happens to the parents. I also try to make some monetary investment for the children
We solved this by having oddparents instead of godparents.
Only if oddparents is pretended by fairly
Love it
Even that aside, what kind of gift is “You’ll have to take care of my kids if I die.”?
Was that their expectation of you, or just a common religious interpretation?
I know plenty of people who use the term and have no care for the religious history of it.
She’s religious, that was the expectation.
You could just call yourself a Sparent.
My mom’s boyfriend got me this huge present that just fit under the tree, the gift was pretty heavy. I racked my brain trying to figure out what it was, had no idea. Got to be honest i was a little hyped up to open this thing, even though my opinion of the boyfriend was average
Christmas day I finally get to find out what it is. open the box and it was a Microwave; a second hand microwave. He had replaced his, wasn’t even a good microwave (5 minutes to boil a cup of water) Mom already had a microwave and i was 14 years old.
His thinking was, “if nothing will force them to move out early, this will.”
Too small clothes so I’d be excited to go on a diet and lose weight… as an already very sick underweight teen with an eating disorder who wasn’t a wize zero “but you’ll get there”
Paulo Cohelo’s garbage books to “help me with my constant depression that keeps bringing everyone down and you like books, no?”
Stuffed animal toy thay was first intended for a baby shower but the mom didn’t want it so “why should it go to waste if you can have it as a birthday present”
Plastic surgery offering as a sweet sixteen present “so you can feel beautiful”
Professional acne treatment (Accutane) as a birthday present because “Oh you poor thing need it”
A used and stained old yellow blouse “because it will make you look happier” I hate yellow.
And the list goes on lol. That was growing up and it is one of the many reasons why I am no contact with all of those people.
Now as an independent adult in a stable loving relaionship surrounded by nice genuine friends, I actually get very thoughtful and beautiful gifts. Some expensive, some with no monetary cost.
Interesting glimpses into a fucked up childhood via presents. Good for you that these times are over.
Thanks for the empathy and good wishes. I am in a better place now.
Mug from Hotspot, probably. It’s actually pretty great though.
My sister gifted me the third book of a fantasy trilogy series once.
I never read or got the first two books.Also, when I was little, my grandma (who hated me with passion) bought me a pink bike just to piss me off, because she thought a boy wouldn’t ever like that color. I rode that bike until I was too tall to use it and every time she saw me enjoying that thing she was furious. :)
If it was Ender’s Game, you might be better off starting with book two…
For their sake i hope it wasn’t, Ender’s Game is possibly the greatest example of deservedly famous book 1 and equally deservedly forgotten rest of the series.
The propensity for you and your grandma to both act out of spite for one another is impressively high. Its good to have proof you’re related
Oh, you’re mistaken. I enjoyed that bike because it was a good bike. It just wasn’t “boy-colored”, but I didn’t mind.
Yeah, but surely you knew how she’d react if you rode it in front of her
Dude, I was a child. I didn’t even have the mental capacity to spite my own grandma. I saw a cool bike, didn’t mind the color and rode it, that’s it.
Psychoanalyzing people on the internet is stupid.
No! You will take the judgement I gave you to your grave!
Gendered colours are stupid anyway.
Especially when you consider the arbitriness of it. Pink used to be the color for baby boys.
Exactly, and I was way too young to actually care about colors anyway.
Why did she hate you with such passion ?
And why didnt she think about spray paint ?
She always called me “the bastard” because I had a different father than my sisters.
That was enough of a reason to hate me, I guess. 🤷It was definitely intentional of her to gift me a “girls” bike and she didn’t expect me to actually like it.
She also pulled stunts like gifting me and my sisters money on Christmas, but I got 10€ and they got 50€ each. My mum always equally split the whole money afterwards.What an asshole
Your mom did right
My grandma once gifted me volume 21 of a manga I didn’t even own a single volume of. All she knew was that I like that japanese comic thing so she bought a random one at the book store.
“Oh, by the way grandma, I’m wearing the dress you bought me too.”
People keep giving me steak house gift cards.
I’m a vegetarian. I can only eat a roll there.
Perhaps that’s why, to annoy you.
Sounds like a dick move, too
I’m vegan and the number of people who can’t figure out “no animal products” is astounding. I’m so tired of “no eggs? No dairy?” like yes bitch, I don’t fuck with animals.
People act like it’s rocket science.
People act like it’s rocket science.
There’s always going to be a question as to where you draw the line. For example, is it okay to eat figs, even though they’re pollinated by wasps that end up in them? Is it okay to eat plants grown using animal products as fertilizer? Is it okay to eat cultured meat that is many generations removed from a living animal, such that none of the material present now was part of the living animal? How about things in the animal kingdom, but outside the chordates? The ones you’d need a microscope to see? Is honey okay to eat?
There’s also the issue that other people that call themselves vegan will disagree with you on what all counts.
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It’s usually not that complex. If someone has a plate chilaquiles with egg on it and I’m say I’m vegan, I don’t think it’s hard to discern that I’m probably not going to eat it.
Egg is obvious if you know what the difference is between vegetarian and vegan in the first place, but I don’t think you can expect most people to be able to cook vegan food, even if they’re trying, and know the basic definition. I know enough non-obvious uses of animal products(like shellac on fruit), that I’d have no confidence in being able to avoid them all unless I grew everything myself.
To be fair, the person you’re responded to said “vegetarian” not “vegan.” But yes, otherwise, it isn’t rocket science. My vegan boys are big fans of seitan.
Hail seitan!
Right. I guess people mix up the two a lot so for me it’s just easier to say “no animal products” plainly.
Either way, a Steak House is probably not a place they’re interested in.
Maybe they have impossible steak!
Which is actually amazing for tacos and as an added bonus is you don’t get those nasty grizzly parts
What? Fish is an animal?? /s
How could I forget? It always blows people’s minds that I don’t eat fish, but before I was vegan I never liked fish anyway but no one had a problem with it until I went vegan.
I’m vegan, and my agency gave me a gift card to Zaxby’s, and it wasn’t even loaded
Are you full vegan or just vegetarian?
If it’s for Ouback Steakhouse, you could always have a Bloomin Onion if you’re okay with eggs and milk.
But otherwise, yeah, not much else on the menu for ya.
Vegetarian but I may as well be vegan since my stomach can’t handle eggs or much dairy.
Don’t forget salad. Outback is largely one of the worst if you’re vegetarian unfortunately. Most steakhouses at least have a few vegetable sides and can make a meal out of them.
I used to receive a lot of Starbucks gift cards and can only drink so much coffee, so I would sell the codes using an online gift card trade site. I forget which specific one I used, but there are several sites when you search up “sell gift cards.” I used to get like $0.70 per dollar or so, which isn’t terrible when you’re a broke college kid. Can’t pay rent in gift cards lol
My mate’s little sister was sad and bemused one Christmas when their parents bought her a (single) Pom-pom. Why would you not buy a pair?
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Fair point.
They bought her a pom
Yeah - I’d always thought it would be called a Pom but just before posting I checked Wikipedia and apparently we’re both wrong. I know what you mean, though.
Gift certificate to a tanning salon when I was a Goth kid.
that’s legit funny
One time my roommate gave me a welding starter set cuz he wanted to learn how to weld LOL.
I got my sister a graphics card because I wanted to play Sims on her machine.


















