I Hate Birthdays

Just a few thoughts on the practice of gift-giving.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• TA
• ThoughtfulAtheist
• hate
• birthdays
• gift
• giving
• stupid
• waste
• of
• time
• and
• money
• present
• presents

[freethinker3161]

sometimes i feel obligated to spent a certain amount,but other than that i love buying people stuff when i can afford it. i love when a gift really goes over well and you can see that the other person really loves it. it's fun.i think gift cards are good but they show a lack of planning for their gift.i can smell a thoughtless gift a mile away.what i love about my family is if you buy a bad thoughtless gift,we give you shit for it right in front of everyone.it's so funny. it's in good fun. .

[ThoughtfulAtheist]

@freethinker3161 dont get me wrong, I absolutely enjoy the experience when a gift i give goes over well. I also am the type of person who if I see something at ANY time of the year and i think you'll like it (and can afford it), I will buy it and give it to that person out of the blue. When it comes to birthdays, I never have more than a week or two's notice. And I want to find a thoughtful gift, but almost never seem to find one. The whole experience is truly agonizing and frustrating for me.

[Gpacharlie]

What I hate most about birthdays is there are so few good belated birthday cards. I also hate people making a big deal over my birthday. Oh, and therenis nothing better than a surprise party, woo hoo.

[DreamwaIker]

I totally agree with you... except sometimes because other people do it, I will still give gifts on birthdays. It's a tradition I wish wasn't around so much though.

[freethinker3161]

@ThoughtfulAtheist so just ask them covertly about a month before there bday about shit you want to buy and they will start talking about shit they are looking to buy. for the house, the yard, a video game, exetra.

[sp4zzer]

You forget one of the more important of human interaction.. Influencing each other. A gift should, in addition to be a nice for the reciever to get, also be something the giver has an interest in. This way gifts is a way to influence each other, where money is just a potential narsisitic wank for the reciever to do whatever he/she wants without recieving anything byt the consumer "experience". (Man its too early to think in english)

[Un0riginalAlias]

I come from a family where we tend to directly ask each other what we want for Birthdays and Christmases, it makes the entire process much easier :P

Also, on a semi-related note, I always disliked and never really understood the appeal of gift cards. You can already spend regular money in any shop, so why trade that for money you can only spend in specific places, which will expire if you forget about it (as I often do)? I tend to use gift cards as makeshift bookmarks, personally.

[fingrid]

It should never be about what they want but what you want to give. I think that telling others what one wants tells me "he's gonna buy that thing for himself anyway", taking that idea off my list of things I could give to him.

The weddings where you could end up getting lots of gifts and the likelihood of getting similar gifts multiple times is high, then it is practical to tell exactly what you wan... I mean need.

[20killers]

I have the same problems with gift giving.

[annonroi]

i have to say, your awesome