She Got Her Nephew A Gift For His Birthday Instead Of Giving Money To His Parents, Like They Had Asked, And Her Sister-In-Law Freaked Out
In this thirty-three-year-old woman’s family, she and her husband are known for getting the best birthday gifts for their nieces and nephews. The kids range in age from one to thirteen, and she knows that the kids’ parents struggle a bit more financially.
“So, we have historically always asked what their child would like and go out of our way to get them something special. I am not talking big ticket items like an iPad, but like, [we spend] one hundred and fifty dollars to two hundred dollars per gift each year,” she explained.
Well, her sister-in-law Hannah and brother-in-law Dave recently announced that they would be hosting a big party for her nephew’s first birthday.
For context, Hannah and Dave both work full-time, own their home, and are “firmly middle class.” They apparently go on a few vacations each year and also only have one child.
Anyway, she decided to text Hannah and ask what her nephew, William, would like for his birthday that they did not already have at their house. But Hannah never responded to her message.
Instead, she received an email later that day that Hannah apparently sent to both sides of the family and all the other guests who were planning to attend the first birthday party.
“Hi, friends and family. We look forward to having you at William’s first birthday. Some of you are asking what you can buy for him. What he really needs is a new deck to play on in our backyard,” Hannah’s email began.
“Therefore, we ask that everyone donate funds toward that goal rather than physical gifts. The deck will cost a total of ten thousand dollars, and we anticipate that thirty-five of you will be attending,” they continued.
“Please give as you’re able. William will be so excited by this addition to his outdoor space. Love, Hannah, Dave, and William.”
prostooleh – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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And immediately, this email did not sit right with her. Don’t get me wrong– she totally understands parents asking for experience-based gifts and even the “environmental” and “human” argument behind the increasingly common requests.
Nonetheless, she did not think that was what Hannah was doing. In fact, she believes it was totally bizarre to ask for a deck, of all things, for a child’s first birthday– especially because she is “fairly certain” that Hannah and Dave could have afforded the deck themselves without the fundraiser.
So, she honestly decided to just completely disregard the email and get William a gift anyway.
And she remembered that the last time William was at her house, he totally fell in love with a train table her sons had.
In turn, she bought William a two hundred dollar train table and showed up with it at the party. But, since there was this huge box standing next to a pile of envelopes stuffed with money, Hannah immediately noticed.
Then, Hannah demanded to know who had brought it, and her husband– who is Hannah’s sister– said that they had. And her sister-in-law immediately became kind of snarky.
“I specifically sent an email after getting your test. Did you not read it?” Hannah asked her husband. But, her husband kind of threw her under the bus and told Hannah to take it up with her.
So, Hannah ended up confronting her and claiming to be really frustrated.
Then, Hannah said they were super disappointed in her since they had expected her and her husband to contribute the most money to the deck because she is more well off than other family members.
Still, she held her ground and told Hannah they had just wanted to purchase a gift that was only for William.
But this only made her sister-in-law more furious.
In fact, Hannah actually scowled at her and then told the rest of the family that she had used her nephew’s birthday to make some sort of “grandstand” in an attempt to make them look bad!
So now, half of her family is on her side about getting William a “real” kid’s birthday gift. Meanwhile, the other half agrees with Hannah that directly disregarding the email was super rude.
In turn, she has been left wondering if refusing to contribute money to the deck and getting William a train table instead was a really jerky thing to do.
Do you think it was weird of Hannah and Dave to ask for deck fund contributions or not? Are people required to get or contribute exactly what party hosts ask for? What would you have done after seeing that email?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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