peanut4us
03-31-2004, 03:22 PM
So... as almost an exact opposing view to my thread about entitlees in the Lounge... i was so irritated this weekend.
Sara's party was lovely. I got to see julie (sweetbasil) and we had several friends pop in and out. We expressly waited to do her presents until around 6 because I felt confident that people would have left by then. Well, not everyone had and their kids wanted to "help" Sara open gifts. I told everyone to not bring presents, and only a couple did so (julie, she smells so yummy!). In any case, I asked the parents if they really wanted to stay for it and tried to explain to the moms that grandma really went to town and it might be a little awkward... they were like, hey she's only 1 once.
So we unwrap and unwrap and unwrap. Yes, Sara did get, IMO, quite a haul all from mom, dad, and grandma: LP Farm, LP garage, LP accesory for the farm (market thingy), a soft noah's ark quiet book and animals, an outdoor wading pool, an outdoor toddler chair, LP school bus, and a quilt from her mommy! The kids were wanting to play with her stuff.. no biggie but it was getting close to 6:30 and I really needed to get her fed and properly bathed for bed... Hullo the darn thing started at 3:30, I thought for sure he bed time wouldn't be compromised ;)
Anyway, so I let them go for a little and one of moms makes a comment to the effect of "Gosh, I hope you don't have any more kids or you won't have anything left to get them!" I tried to take it good naturedly. But then her DH added "Don't you think you're spoiling her? She's going to expect this kind of thing from here on out" WTH!!! Um, she's 1. She's not going to remember diddly doodah about what she got. And yes, it was too much, but grandma bought most of it, and I'm certainly not going to stop her. They would have died over all the new Gymbo clothes I had upstairs that grandma had bought the night before ;)
Seriously though, I was kind of bugged. I'm sorry if it makes you feel bad, but my mom is independently wealthy and Sara is the only grandchild... And I'm sorry if you have 3 kids each 2 years apart and your wife has never worked and you got married so young that you've been playing catch up since then. I felt like they were looking at me like "we have it all" and we don't. Our house is about half the price and size of theirs. And I don't want it any bigger. I like where we are. I like that when we qualified for our house, we consciously made the decision to buy only what we could afford based on one salary. And that has served us well.
So don't go disparaging my kid's birthday presents because you don't have the means to do that yourself. it's not like I tried to flaunt it.
I think i get testy with this couple though because they have also made it clear that they think that Scott should be the bread winner and not the SAHP. Gah!
Sorry that was mostly incoherent, but I just wanted to get it off my chest!
Sara's party was lovely. I got to see julie (sweetbasil) and we had several friends pop in and out. We expressly waited to do her presents until around 6 because I felt confident that people would have left by then. Well, not everyone had and their kids wanted to "help" Sara open gifts. I told everyone to not bring presents, and only a couple did so (julie, she smells so yummy!). In any case, I asked the parents if they really wanted to stay for it and tried to explain to the moms that grandma really went to town and it might be a little awkward... they were like, hey she's only 1 once.
So we unwrap and unwrap and unwrap. Yes, Sara did get, IMO, quite a haul all from mom, dad, and grandma: LP Farm, LP garage, LP accesory for the farm (market thingy), a soft noah's ark quiet book and animals, an outdoor wading pool, an outdoor toddler chair, LP school bus, and a quilt from her mommy! The kids were wanting to play with her stuff.. no biggie but it was getting close to 6:30 and I really needed to get her fed and properly bathed for bed... Hullo the darn thing started at 3:30, I thought for sure he bed time wouldn't be compromised ;)
Anyway, so I let them go for a little and one of moms makes a comment to the effect of "Gosh, I hope you don't have any more kids or you won't have anything left to get them!" I tried to take it good naturedly. But then her DH added "Don't you think you're spoiling her? She's going to expect this kind of thing from here on out" WTH!!! Um, she's 1. She's not going to remember diddly doodah about what she got. And yes, it was too much, but grandma bought most of it, and I'm certainly not going to stop her. They would have died over all the new Gymbo clothes I had upstairs that grandma had bought the night before ;)
Seriously though, I was kind of bugged. I'm sorry if it makes you feel bad, but my mom is independently wealthy and Sara is the only grandchild... And I'm sorry if you have 3 kids each 2 years apart and your wife has never worked and you got married so young that you've been playing catch up since then. I felt like they were looking at me like "we have it all" and we don't. Our house is about half the price and size of theirs. And I don't want it any bigger. I like where we are. I like that when we qualified for our house, we consciously made the decision to buy only what we could afford based on one salary. And that has served us well.
So don't go disparaging my kid's birthday presents because you don't have the means to do that yourself. it's not like I tried to flaunt it.
I think i get testy with this couple though because they have also made it clear that they think that Scott should be the bread winner and not the SAHP. Gah!
Sorry that was mostly incoherent, but I just wanted to get it off my chest!