Vent: My Mother Makes Me Nuts About Gifts

[Anonymous]

I know this is the same as a wish list, but I use pinterest.

I share the boards so they know what is on our mind.

I also have a favorite store in McLean.
The manager knows what I like. I have my mom call her and they pick out my gifts together. The manager wraps them. My mom loves her and she knows how strained my relationship is with my mom, so it works for us.

[Anonymous]

Dear God. OP make an amazon wishlist and be done with it!!! We LOVE our amazon wishlist and we get exactly what we want and also it's exactly what the gift giver wants to give us (since they chose it out of other options on the wishlist).

Anytime she asks, you say: "please see the wishlist." And if she criticizes, you tell her she's hurting your feelings.

[Anonymous]

"Do you want my suggestions or not?"
In theory she should stammer and say "well, yes . . ." to which you reply, "I just gave them to you." and close conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have exactly this problem too, OP. Not only for me, but for my children. We all have Amazon Wish Lists so it could not be clearer what we want and how to get it. But my mother comes back for each and every item with a series of questions --

Do you still want that?
Did you see that one reviewer said that it was [not well made, not good, not well-written -- whatever]
Did you see that Consumer Reports said that X was better?
It's been on your Wish List for six months so I wasn't sure you really wanted it, do you really?
That's going to take up a lot of room
Do the kids really need that?

And so on.

It's EXHAUSTING.

I tell her not to use the Wish List -- doesn't matter.
I tell her to buy whatever she wants -- doesn't matter.
I tell her she can use the Wish List, but the items are what we want, we don't care about the reviews, etc. -- doesn't matter.

OP, with people who are anxious and controlling, this is life.

NP here. I am absolutely crying laughing at this post because I get all that from my mom and then some. This last week alone I got at least 15 calls and emails haranguing me about gifts and sizes and colors and I'm in a store now and they have 40% off until November 25th and would we like anything from that store for Christmas? No? A shirt? No? An umbrella? No?

I love her so much but AAAAAGHHHHHH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have exactly this problem too, OP. Not only for me, but for my children. We all have Amazon Wish Lists so it could not be clearer what we want and how to get it. But my mother comes back for each and every item with a series of questions --

Do you still want that?
Did you see that one reviewer said that it was [not well made, not good, not well-written -- whatever]
Did you see that Consumer Reports said that X was better?
It's been on your Wish List for six months so I wasn't sure you really wanted it, do you really?
That's going to take up a lot of room
Do the kids really need that?

And so on.

It's EXHAUSTING.

I tell her not to use the Wish List -- doesn't matter.
I tell her to buy whatever she wants -- doesn't matter.
I tell her she can use the Wish List, but the items are what we want, we don't care about the reviews, etc. -- doesn't matter.

OP, with people who are anxious and controlling, this is life.

NP here. I am absolutely crying laughing at this post because I get all that from my mom and then some. This last week alone I got at least 15 calls and emails haranguing me about gifts and sizes and colors and I'm in a store now and they have 40% off until November 25th and would we like anything from that store for Christmas? No? A shirt? No? An umbrella? No?

I love her so much but AAAAAGHHHHHH

My God! I have a sister!