Do your parents still buy you Christmas gifts?

When your parents are dead you'll wish for a call, a present, a "little something." Be appreciative.

 

My dad is dead.

I am appreciative.

 

Really what it comes down to is I feel like gifts at Christmas are for the kids, not me.

Apparently, reading this thread, that sentiment makes me a major league asshole.

 

Hopefully no one else had their Christmas ruined by a gift-giving parent.

 

It makes you somewhat unaware that not every family dynamic is the same.

The ages of the people at our holiday gathering/gift exchange this year were 86, 78, 58, 52 (me), 42 and 41.

 

Generosity or kindness does not have a "sell by" date. If someone enjoys (and can afford) giving a gift to parents, children, siblings, etc., and doesn't expect anything in return, then where is the harm?

I still send my parents a Christmas present every year, and they do likewise for me and my family.

 

It's that you seem to take great offense to something innocuous that makes your mom happy.

 

My parents go overboard on Christmas. I tell them not to. They do it anyway. They buy a bunch of stuff they don't need to for my fiance as well. When I told my mom that the excessive gift giving is unnecessary she said "you'll have kids soon, then I'll be buying them presents, not you."

 

Perhaps feeling bad if someone got you a gift and he or she wasn't on your Christmas shopping list, or even on the radar screen for being on the shopping list?

 

No, it doesn't... But when it comes to dealing with your parents, you really have to choose your battles. Is there anything about this issues that is important enough to get into an argument or a fight with an elderly parent? Sometimes you also have to measure intent as well. It sounds like your mom means well, even if it might be misguided. If it makes her happy, let her be happy. I doubt her giving you a gift means your kids will be shortchanged.

 

Dropping the trolling for a moment, has it occurred to you that we always will be children to our parents? I don't mean that in the condescending sense. We literally are the children of our parents.

 

This has become the anti-holiday cheer thread!