Presents for ungrateful dad

onlyroz

Get him a goat for an African village, or something.

Valli

It can be a minefield...

my dad will hand over something and mutter 'you can have this' to which my mum adds 'he means he has bought you this' - again though, issues from his childhood.

My grandma was hard to buy for and would often return the gifts, months later, with some minor issue about why it wasn't suitable... (not his mum by the way) - and we were kids then. That hurt.

In our family the ladies 'sort' of manage a gift list for their family, and we ask what to get people.
DD and I though both keep a wish list on a certain site...we get stuff we want;)

If it were me OP I might have a word, tell him you love him and want to buy something he'll appreciate...and ask him.

Other than that, the 'nothing' looks good!

I knew someone who was told, by his dad, he was 'wasting his money' buying cards. Hhe never bought his dad a card again and I know his dad was hurt - but it served him right.

Shelldean

I have a rellie like this too, she'll be 99 in Dec so maybe it's old age but she's always been a grumpy old witch for as long as I can recall.

If we gave her smellies, she'd ask if we thought she smelt. I did her a hamper one year only for her to moan about the contents (despite going through her cupboard and getting stuff she used daily)
So gave her a co-op voucher ( her local supermarket) thinking she could could get exactly what she wanted, only for her to ask if we thought she was a pauper.
there was various other incidents, as I was sure I'd finally hit on a present she liked, but alas no. All presents were met with a caustic comment.

I finally stuck two fingers up at her, and refused to buy her anything. Might send her the latest school photo of the kids but thats my limit now.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

After being faced with someone like that once - the next year when the presents were handed out, he got a 'Knew you wouldn't like anything, so we didn't bother'. I hear he has only done that once since I broke up with his son. Who, upon being told at the big birthday bash 'What'd'you all waste your money on that crap for?' when it was a very expensive pressure washer he had been saying he needed for months, in front of his mother, his aunt, his sister sobbing that Daddy didn't like the present they had all chipped in for, said 'alright then', picked it up and took it back to the shop, then returned to the party to hand everyone their share back.


Then I had a boyfriend who always insisted that he didn't want any presents, ever, as they meant nothing due to commercialism. So much so, he hadn't got me a birthday present earlier in the year. Come Christmas, he found that I hadn't got him anything.

I got lots of presents the following birthday.



There is no sympathy for people who are so nasty as to complain about presents. Doesn't matter who does it, it is inexcusable to have no regard for other people's feelings.