Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Re-gifting


Read very interesting posts about re-gifting on Wayfarer's and Aisha's blog. My husband and I spent weeks in getting a gift for someone. We both love to give gifts and I enjoy to wrap them beautifully. We have some friends whom you could call “nashukray”. There are so many stories about this nashukri episode but I will tell you the most recent experience. I bought a very pretty baby dress and a stuffed toy for this friend's new baby girl and bought a baseball practice set for their 4 yr old son so that he does not feel ignored. When that friend opened the gift instead of saying thank you or that she liked the gift, she goes you know my daughter got so many dresses that I don’t have space for them in the closet. And she kept saying the same thing again and again in different ways. I could feel my cheeks go red and smoke coming out my ears. To annoy me more she says to her son who was opening his gift ..."Oh! Please don’t open it you might hurt someone…keep it for Pakistan." (keep it we will gift it to someone in Pakistan) They were to leave for Pakistan in 2 weeks time. I just sat there looking at her thinking why the hell I wasted so much money and time on them.

4 comments:

wayfarer said...

That's so rude! See, i'm appreciate of gifts...i truly am. I just get offended when my little one gets something that just isn't appropriate for him/his age etc.

You got that person nice gifts and they should have been more appreciative. Even if we get clothes or something that i don't like for him, he still wears them and i don't regift them. But it's weird when you get a shorts outfit in the winter or something else that just won't fit etc. I hope i didn't offend anyone with my post. :-/

Reza said...

Well thats a common theme with mose South Asians. I dont know why they are so stuck up. I love giving and receiving gifts no matter what they are. It's the thought that counts. I've had people do the same nashukri bs with me before and I just never gift anything to them before. A gift isnt a gift if someone asks you, what do you want lol. So they have to accept whats given to them or just stfu.

que sera sera said...

wayfarer: you did not offend anyone with your post. I have been annoyed so many times with regifting and sometimes even with new gifting...at my kids birthdays at our wedding and so many other times. I was really offended by this friend of mine and this was not the first time she said those things. I have always given her and her kids age appropriate gifts but she never said thanks not even once.

Aisha said...

I'm shocked that she would do that. Sadly this really makes me hesitate in giving gifts. My mom always says if the gift will cost more than $25 give money b/c ppl will assume you got it cheap on the clearance rack. That hurts particularly if its a good friend. They should know I put thought into their gift!

Your friends behavior however is inappropriate. I wonder how good of a friend she truly was....

I know it may not seem big. Its just a gift. But to me... that says a lot about the character of a person.