Useless Christmas gift(s)

[margecat]

MIL just called to tell DH that we are each getting this flashing red light thing you stick on your car when you break down, so someone can stop and help you. Does anyone else here, especially the women, see the possible problem with this idea??? I plan on trashing it when they leave. I would have donated it, but I don't want another woman to buy it, thinking it's a good idea! Every year, she wastes money on expensive gadgets we don't need nor want. I wish she'd either just stop buying this junk, or give us the amount she spent on it--it could go toward paying bills, the cats, and a milloin other useful things. She probably means well, I suppose.

 

[Draco]

i feel the same way when it comes to certain gifts. Sometimes I wish they wouldnt gift me anything at all.

this year I got a cheese knife with a really tacky reindeer on it. Looks like something from a dollar store, and i am like.. umm, thanks? She knows I do not host and I do not eat cheese because of my diet.

but yea, a flashing light on your car, being a woman, is a signal for all creepos to come and know you're stranded!

 

[Willowy]

Eh, I'd keep it. Around here, if you get stuck in a blizzard/snowbank, you definitely want visibility. If you don't need that visibility, don't use it, if you do need the visibility, you'll be glad you have it.

My grandma always gave the WORST gifts. Stuff she got out of those "cheap old people stuff" catalogs, not even suited to the person she gave it to.

 

[artiemom]

One year I got a roll of shelf liner!!! Omgosh. I do not even know how I kept from trash it right then and there. It was from my aunt. I had no need of it— not moving, no new apartment or furniture. So weird.

She was right in front of me when I opened it.
What joy....

 

[Mia6]

One year I got both The Clapper and a Chia Pet. I grew basil out of the Chia.

 

[FeralHearts]

margecat welp - at least your MIL likes you well enough to not what to see you hurt. lol ;-)

 

[susanm9006]

I would also suggest you keep the flashing light thing as well. Female or not if you are stopped on the road you want to be seen by the cars behind you rather than having them plow into you. This can happen in snow, rain, fog or with an impaired driver. And of course, if you are stopped you are also going to put your flashers on (I hope), so you still signal your breakdown.

As far as useless gifts, have you tried asking her if you can send her your wish list? Without knowing what you want, we just have to guess.

My grandmother gave my sister and I dish towels every year for Christmas. I didn’t appreciate them, nor did my sister, until some years after grandma passed and my dish towels were getting really ratty with no new ones being gifted. So every since then in addition to other gifts my sister and I give each other dish towels.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

One time, my MIL gave me this hideous, brown, long shirt/short dress thing. She bragged about how it was $1 on the clearance rack at Wal-Mart...that got donated pretty fast!

That year, they gave us a big gift, which we have used several times and are very appreciative of. They wanted to "give us each something to open".

 

[DreamerRose]

My son thinks I have small feet, and I guess compared to his, I do. But he insists on sending me slippers size 6 which I can hardly get a toe in. Telling him my shoe size makes no difference. He exchanged one pair of shoes for me, but I give the others away.

 

[Mother Dragon]

MIL just called to tell DH that we are each getting this flashing red light thing you stick on your car when you break down, so someone can stop and help you. Does anyone else here, especially the women, see the possible problem with this idea??? I plan on trashing it when they leave. I would have donated it, but I don't want another woman to buy it, thinking it's a good idea! Every year, she wastes money on expensive gadgets we don't need nor want. I wish she'd either just stop buying this junk, or give us the amount she spent on it--it could go toward paying bills, the cats, and a milloin other useful things. She probably means well, I suppose.

Anyone who stops won't know if there's a woman the car. Texas has an open carry law, so anyone approaching a car doesn't know if there's a big gun waiting to greet them. As a handicapped senior, sometimes helps is good thing. On the other hand, most of us have cell phones to call for help.

That flasher could be used on top of the car for visibility when changing a tire or needing to get through traffic in an emergency. I'd put it in the car and hope I never had to use it if I were you.

 

[Maria Bayote]

She was right in front of me when I opened it.

And the worst part is faking the delight upon opening the gift and knowing full well it is useless.

 

[Mother Dragon]

My mother-in-law once for Christmas gave me a piece of fabric which obviously had had pieces cut out of it - and I didn't even sew! Another time she gave me a single volume of a set of grocery store cooking encyclopedias. Talk about passive aggressive!

 

[cheeser]

My MIL once gave me a book on how to lose weight, and I was a size 7 at the time.

 

[DreamerRose]

I forgot one. Clunky jewelry that looks like it dates from the 1950s. I have a sister who never fails with that one.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

One year I got a roll of shelf liner!!! Omgosh. I do not even know how I kept from trash it right then and there. It was from my aunt. I had no need of it— not moving, no new apartment or furniture. So weird.

She was right in front of me when I opened it.
What joy....

I use that to line the wall behind the litter boxes.

The worst gifts I’ve gotten were from my Grandma. She used to buy things decades before we needed them. Or they were second hand. So after DH and I got married she sent me some night things that looked like...vintage. Not even cute. But even though I was thin then I wasn’t a small or medium. I gave them away. My motherthought they were the old style nursing gowns and found it very amusing!

When I got married my great aunt; who i never met in person, sent me used pillowcases that had animals embroidered on them. I never figured out what to do with them. They are probably In my attic now.

 

[AbbysMom]

Before my husband and I got married he got into a huge fight with his mother abut where we were going to live. We were going to rent an apartment in the city and start saving for a house. She did not approve of us renting or living in a city. She offered us $1,000 to buy a house. So we found a small apartment in a really good neighborhood of a local city. Our first Christmas she bought me a steering wheel lock for my car.