What do you say? You say, “because you keep buying random versions of stuff he can’t use” tell her the truth. She’s being very rude. |
| If he's old enough to tell her he wants those $$ gifts, he's old enough to ask for a gift card so he can figure it out later. He needs to be coached to stop telling her items that she will only screw up. |
+1. This is not that difficult. "This will make things easier as in the past there as been an issue with noncompatible purchases. I know, this age is SO HAAARD!!" |
|
Honestly, I would just say, "Thank you."
That's the proper response to any gift anyone gives you ever. There is no proper alternative response. Also, stop telling her what to buy him. |
Best response! |
If you’re an idiot. |
Do you really want to be supporting the Communists? You idiot. |
Aww, my mom is a sucker for a "bargain" too. And if there are "extras" then she is in 7th heaven. We get around it by sending links to specific items that she can choose from. She is really good about only clicking on the links and buying only from the links we send. We had a lot of "oh rats, there's a problem" gifts until we hit on the link thing. Good luck! |
| My MIL does the same. DS asked for a specific gift card because he thought it would be easier for her and he’d actually use it. She told us she couldn’t do it because he had to have a gift to open. This year they got knock off RC cars and what she called a Fitbit. It was a knock of version. Neither item worked and she felt bad about the RC car. She said we should return it and we said we would, even though these things never end up being returnable. She didn’t realize the fake Fitbit didn’t work. Everyone said thank you and we threw it out a day later when it completely fell apart. It makes us sad that she wastes money every year but the kids now just say thank you and hope she doesn’t ask them to try them out while she’s there. |
| Ask for money or gift cards, and maybe things that don't matter so much if they are knockoffs (no electronics of any kind): books, puzzles, clothing, favorite T-shirts. |
| Do what everyone should do with a gift: say "thank you!" enthusiastically, and then do whatever you want with it. Gifts are gifts, not something you deserve. I know it's annoying but there's no other kind response. |
That works great in cases where the giver isn’t going to find out the gift ended up at goodwill. But this knockoff switch probably cost Grandma over $100 and she is probably going to be miffed when she notices that it isn’t there. |
| Get Grandma to give him more practical, non-electronic, gifts to open, that she is able to shop for nearby. Clothing, shoes, Legos, anything that won't matter if she goes off plan and buys a knock off. Say thanks. Or offer to buy it and she can wrap it. |
| You need to sit down and explain to Grandma how Amazon works with sellers who charge ridiculous prices to see if some Grandma will be a sucker and buy them, and then all the counterfeit crap. I explained all this to Grandma and it finally clicked and she stopped wasting her money. Our Grandma is from the Midwest and just didn't grasp that these nice looking websites were full of criminals and con artists until I explained it all to her. Must be nice to go through life that long and not be jaded. |
| And if she's this naive you also need to explain those phone calls from "Apple" and "The IRS" before she drives to the grocery store to buy some gift cards to send them, or lets them control her computer. |