Imagine typing out this letter and not stopping halfway and thinking âHmmm, this makes me sound like the worst human being in the world.â
Holy fucking shit
I had to go find the response:
But nothing did happen. You received a thoughtful gift that cost more time than money. Thatâs it! If someone gives you a present you donât like, you smile and say, âThanks, how thoughtful,â and then stash it in the back of your closet. You donât ask your kid to complain to the gift-giver via backchannel. Itâs fine if you like to give expensive presentsâand can afford to do soâbut thatâs not the only way to show someone that you care. Even if you donât like knitwear, your daughter-in-law spent countless hours over the course of a half-year working on something very detailed for you, and you say yourself it was a lovely bedspread. Whether she got the yarn with the gift card you gave her or spent her own money is beside the point; youâre acting as if she re-gifted something when that clearly wasnât the case. Your daughter-in-lawâs gift was thoughtful and intricate; yours was financially generous and relatively generic. There would be no reason to compare the two if you hadnât insisted on doing so in the first place.
You are grown adults with plenty of money; if thereâs something you want for yourself, go ahead and buy itâthis kind of petty scorekeeping around gift-giving is barely excusable when little children do it. Writing her a letter to express âsadnessâ that her own parents didnât teach her proper etiquette would be wildly inappropriate, out of line, and an unnecessary nuclear option. And itâs a guaranteed ticket to make sure you see and hear about your grandchildren way less than you do now. You still have time to salvage this relationshipâdonât die on this hill. Let it go, apologize for your churlishness, and take yourself shopping if you want a pricey gift this year.




















