Cheap or Just Fed Up?
I do not know if I am cheap or just tired of being asked for gifts. It seems every week holds a birthday, babyshower, holiday, house warming, wedding, promotion, anniversary, etc.
I just attended a baby shower and to be honest I really don’t understand social etiquette of my generation. First of all, the pregnant friend is having her sixth child. So, why is she having her sixth baby shower. Used to be you had a baby shower for your first born and then you was on your own. Sure, close friends would buy gifts, but you didn’t have a one hundred person shower with big ticket items. I was shocked at the items tagged for her shower at the department stores. Cribs, strollers, walkers, car seats, etc.. What happened to hand me downs? Unfortunately, this is not the first person who has sent me a baby shower invite for their third, forth , etc pregnancy. Nearly everyone is doing this now.
It’s the same with weddings. I can not tell you how many invites I have to friends, family, and even casual acquaintances for their second or third trip down the isle. Again, used to be that engaged couples only registered for gifts if it was their first wedding. Instead, I have friends that are just as invested in life and their home as I am sending me invites to buy them a new Kitchen Aid when mine is on its last leg itself.
Of course, then I get a house warming invite from someone on their fifth home. When did people start throwing house warming parties for their fourth house? Its called move your old stuff into your new house….or buy your own new stuff! This one I just refuse to even consider. The invite immediately meets my trash bag.
Christmas is right around the corner and I have grown to dread it. What ever happened to putting coworkers names in a hat, drawing a name, and buying a five or ten dollar gift? Oh no, now the names still go in a hat, but for a fifty dollar gift. I feel like an egg sucking dog not to participate, but I have a child to buy for. Since having my daughter, I don’t spend fifty dollars on my parents for Christmas. So, why would I spend it on a coworker?
The above gift obsession is trickling down to our kids too. My niece was just invited to a sweet sixteen party and my sister in law actually forked out a hundred dollars on the birthday gift off “the list.” Since when do sixteen year olds or anyone else register for birthday gifts?
Call me cheap, a party pooper, or anything else, but I just don’t get it and I am tired of doing it.
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April 23rd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Oh I so agree with you on this ! And the worst is that it is passing on to our children. My problem is that I have a hard time saying no, even when I can’t afford it. I never had a baby shower with my first two children and then when I got pregnant with my third, a friend of mine threw me a shower but this was because I had nothing left from my previous children as it had been 8 and a half years since I had a baby and we had been told we would never be able to have another child again. And for this reason we had got rid of everything.