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Players:
B: The younger of my two brothers. He's cool and he and I get along well.
G: The older of my two brothers. He is not close to the rest of the family like B and I are, and this post is mostly ranting about him.
P: G's wife.
L: G and P's daughter.
Z: G and P's son.
Mom and Dad: B, G's, and my parents.
Okay. G and his family, P, L, and Z, tend to waste stuff that we get for them. Either they don't use it, or (especially when the kids were younger) it would get broken soon after they got it, and then trashed. Or, the parents would take stuff away from the kids and not let them use it. Examples:
My parents got G's family a Sirius radio several years ago, along with a (either 6 month or 1 year, I don't remember) subscription to a variety channels that they thought the family would be interested in. It never got used. A few months after my parents gave the radio to G, my parents asked G how they liked it. G's response was, "Oh, we never use it. It's sitting in the closet."
Also several years ago, I got Z a video game for a new gaming system that he and his family had just gotten. It was a game that Z and I had played together when he had visited our house before, so I knew he liked it and wanted it. The following year, I asked him how he liked the game. He said he'd never gotten to play it, because his mother took it away from him. She didn't think it was an appropriate game for a kid his age. (Note: Z, at the time, was around 10-11 years old. I got him a Mario game.) P never told me that she didn't want Z playing the game and never asked if she could take it back for something else. The game just sat there and collected dust.
Ditto the above with a DVD box set of a Disney animated series.
Two years ago, my parents and I signed up for a new cell phone family plan together. We thought that getting Z a cell phone and adding him to our plan would be a nice Christmas present. He was about 13 at the time (15 now) so we figured he'd use it to call/text his friends. We kept an eye on the monthly usage to make sure he didn't throw us all over our minutes, but he didn't. He didn't use it much for making calls, actually, but he texted on it a lot, which was good because we had an unlimited texting plan. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Our contract is about to expire and I'm planning on switching cell phone providers, so my parents are deciding what kind of plan they want to go with. They didn't want to drop Z off the plan since it looked like he was still using the phone for texting a lot. My mom asked G how Z liked texting on the phone. G's response: "Oh, Z doesn't use that phone at all. I take it with me when I go to work and use it to text P during the day." It got my mom riled up because she didn't get the phone for G, she got it for Z, and G took it away from him and used it himself.
Also two years ago, B got a $100 gift certificate for L for Christmas. Apparently the company that B got the certificate from keeps track of when their certificates are bought and then used, and if one isn't used after a couple of years, they send a notice to the buyer to let them know that it hasn't been redeemed. Well, B got a letter last week stating that the certificate he got for L hadn't been used yet. When asked about it, P and G's response was, "Oh, a gift certificate? Oh, well, okay." End of story.
I find this frustrating. I understand that all of these examples include gifts, and that they can do whatever they want with the gift after we give it to them. It's just frustrating that fairly high-priced items get wasted so casually. They never thank us for any of this stuff, either. Z's birthday was last month and my parents sent him a $100 check. The check has been cashed, so they know he got it, but they never got so much as an acknowledgment, let alone a thank you for it.
It really makes me not want to get them much for Christmas this year. As I said in the examples above, I've gotten Z video games and DVDs...and I usually get every member of their family something separate (so, 4 gifts total.) I have 1 thing picked out, that was pretty inexpensive, that I want to give to the whole family, and just be done with it.
What do you guys think?
B: The younger of my two brothers. He's cool and he and I get along well.
G: The older of my two brothers. He is not close to the rest of the family like B and I are, and this post is mostly ranting about him.
P: G's wife.
L: G and P's daughter.
Z: G and P's son.
Mom and Dad: B, G's, and my parents.
Okay. G and his family, P, L, and Z, tend to waste stuff that we get for them. Either they don't use it, or (especially when the kids were younger) it would get broken soon after they got it, and then trashed. Or, the parents would take stuff away from the kids and not let them use it. Examples:
My parents got G's family a Sirius radio several years ago, along with a (either 6 month or 1 year, I don't remember) subscription to a variety channels that they thought the family would be interested in. It never got used. A few months after my parents gave the radio to G, my parents asked G how they liked it. G's response was, "Oh, we never use it. It's sitting in the closet."
Also several years ago, I got Z a video game for a new gaming system that he and his family had just gotten. It was a game that Z and I had played together when he had visited our house before, so I knew he liked it and wanted it. The following year, I asked him how he liked the game. He said he'd never gotten to play it, because his mother took it away from him. She didn't think it was an appropriate game for a kid his age. (Note: Z, at the time, was around 10-11 years old. I got him a Mario game.) P never told me that she didn't want Z playing the game and never asked if she could take it back for something else. The game just sat there and collected dust.
Ditto the above with a DVD box set of a Disney animated series.
Two years ago, my parents and I signed up for a new cell phone family plan together. We thought that getting Z a cell phone and adding him to our plan would be a nice Christmas present. He was about 13 at the time (15 now) so we figured he'd use it to call/text his friends. We kept an eye on the monthly usage to make sure he didn't throw us all over our minutes, but he didn't. He didn't use it much for making calls, actually, but he texted on it a lot, which was good because we had an unlimited texting plan. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Our contract is about to expire and I'm planning on switching cell phone providers, so my parents are deciding what kind of plan they want to go with. They didn't want to drop Z off the plan since it looked like he was still using the phone for texting a lot. My mom asked G how Z liked texting on the phone. G's response: "Oh, Z doesn't use that phone at all. I take it with me when I go to work and use it to text P during the day." It got my mom riled up because she didn't get the phone for G, she got it for Z, and G took it away from him and used it himself.
Also two years ago, B got a $100 gift certificate for L for Christmas. Apparently the company that B got the certificate from keeps track of when their certificates are bought and then used, and if one isn't used after a couple of years, they send a notice to the buyer to let them know that it hasn't been redeemed. Well, B got a letter last week stating that the certificate he got for L hadn't been used yet. When asked about it, P and G's response was, "Oh, a gift certificate? Oh, well, okay." End of story.
I find this frustrating. I understand that all of these examples include gifts, and that they can do whatever they want with the gift after we give it to them. It's just frustrating that fairly high-priced items get wasted so casually. They never thank us for any of this stuff, either. Z's birthday was last month and my parents sent him a $100 check. The check has been cashed, so they know he got it, but they never got so much as an acknowledgment, let alone a thank you for it.
It really makes me not want to get them much for Christmas this year. As I said in the examples above, I've gotten Z video games and DVDs...and I usually get every member of their family something separate (so, 4 gifts total.) I have 1 thing picked out, that was pretty inexpensive, that I want to give to the whole family, and just be done with it.
What do you guys think?
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