She Wanted To Buy Her Nephew A Cheap Christmas Gift Because His Parents Are Poor, And Her Husband Was Appalled By Her Selfishness
Every Christmas season, this woman and her husband purchase gifts for all of the kids in their family.
Her husband is currently a stay-at-home dad who does not collect an income. She, on the other hand, is a college graduate with a good job– so the couple is financially comfortable.
Her husband and his family are also minority immigrants who mostly work labor jobs, and there are six kids in total for whom they had to purchase Christmas gifts.
The oldest child, who is nineteen, was allocated a gift budget of above one hundred dollars.
“We spend the most on him because we got custody of him at fifteen and raised him,” she said.
Her child receives gifts valued at about forty dollars, and then a sibling group of cousins– who are ten, six, and two– all receive gifts that cost between thirty and thirty-five dollars each.
Next, there is one six-year-old only child who she and her husband opted to spend forty-five dollars on since, apparently, the child’s parents also buy them gifts.
And finally, the last child is a twelve-year-old boy whose family immigrated to the United States a few months ago.
The boy reportedly does not have an easy life since he does not speak English and currently shares a one-bedroom with both of his parents.
Tetiana Moish – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
On top of that, the boy’s mom does not work– so even though his father works overtime, the boy’s family is barely scraping by.
Rather than allocating this young boy more money, given his difficult living situation, though, she actually opted to buy him a “really cheap” fifteen-dollar Lego set.
Her reasoning? She apparently did not want to buy the boy an expensive gift since she knew his parents would not be able to afford to reciprocate the gifts.
Anyway, after realizing what she had picked out, her husband wanted to add some more gifts to their cart for the little boy so that way they would spend around the same amount on every child.
Her husband also pointed out how they could afford to spend more money, how the little boy already had a ‘tough year,’ and claimed that the extra thirty dollars would have just been wasted on fast food anyway.
Shockingly, though, she just told her husband that the boy’s mom needed to get a job in order to give him a nice Christmas like the other children.
Moreover, she “reminded” her husband how they would be paying for and hosting the Christmas party and claimed that the boy’s family probably would not bring any food since they could not afford it.
So obviously, her husband was shocked and also looked really hurt.
“As if I was insinuating [the boy] did not deserve a nice Christmas because his parents are poor,” she explained.
“Every kid deserves a nice Christmas. I just do not think it is necessary to spend as much as the people who will actually be giving us gifts.”
Understandably, though, her husband thought her decision was completely selfish and called her out on it.
He claimed that she had no idea what it was like to be a poor immigrant or experience people treating her the way she was treating the little boy.
She could also tell that the boy’s story was hitting her husband close to home since he, too, traveled to the United States as a young boy and grew up in a similar situation.
So, in order to “keep the peace,” she ended up buying the little boy an extra gift– bringing his total Christmas budget from originally fifteen dollars up to thirty-five. Despite that, though, her husband still will not talk to her.
“And I cannot understand why. I spent the extra money and obviously don’t expect anything else in return,” she vented.
In turn, she has been forced to look in the mirror and is wondering if initially refusing to give the little boy a nice gift simply because his parents are poor makes her a total jerk.
Do you know anyone who only matches their holiday gift-giving budgets in comparison to the gifts they will receive back? Is that the right way to spread the Christmas spirit? Being that the boy already has less, wouldn’t that be even more incentive to provide him with a larger gift this season? Do you think she was in the wrong?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:Relationships
Read This Next
