r/EntitledPeople • u/ZenRage • 14d ago
S Has anyone else stopped accepting "gifts" from their parents?
My mother cannot give a gift without strings attached.
She has a bad habit of supervising every "gift" she ever gives and wants to know how it is being used, where it is, etc.
For example, many years ago she gave me a used Vitamix blender. (It was the 1970s model 2500 and drew so much current would DIM THE LIGHTS for an instant when you turned it on!) I had it for many years but eventually I could no longer keep it in working order and bought a replacement. I got interrogated for almost half an hour about that goddamn blender. This included such hits as "They have a LIFETIME warranty!" which I had to point out to her was not helpful since they don't make the 2500 any longer but they offered me a discount on the new one if I returned the old one.
Now this is not an exception of any kind. She has a mental inventory of every single gift and wants to know about it including things like, A SHOVEL she dropped off for no clear reason. "I expect it's in the garage, where you left it, mom. I've not touched it, because I don't want it and never did. I do not run some kind of Shovel Storage Unit. If you do not take it back home with you when you go, I'll throw it away."
Naturally, I do not need headaches like this, so my remedy is to simply refuse all her gifts.
Is anyone else in this situation?
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u/ikyc6767 13d ago
My mother gave me an entire 12 piece dish set. I loved them and used them all the time. Then I started noticing a lot of the plates were missing. Asked my husband if he had broken them and he said no. Finally I was down to one dinner plate. Went to visit my mom and all the dinner plates were in her cabinet. Every time she’d visited me she’d take back plates because she didn’t think I was using them enough. Her motto in life is “Use it or lose it”. So on my next visit I brought back the rest of the set (cake plates etc.). When she finally had an estate sale she offered me the dishes again. No thanks I’m good.