How do I reciprocate this gift?

[twowhat?]

I have a friend like this (mom of DDs' friend) and it's really hard to not feel guilty, but I agree to not feel guilty or that you have to reciprocate.

My friend is really well off and does gifts for everything - birthdays, elementary school graduations, Easter baskets, Halloween baskets, gifts for recovering from medical issues, etc...I never reciprocated on most of those because I knew there was NO WAY I could keep up (we don't have financial limitations, but I have time/energy limitations!). We do nice gifts for her DD's birthday (which we always have since she's one of our kids' best friends), and for her birthday I get her a card and a small bunch of flowers (these are cheap and easy to pick up at the grocery store) and drop it on her porch. She's not what I would call a close friend at all so I wouldn't be comfortable with gifting a pedicure date, etc.

I DEFINITELY think my friend thrives on gift-giving, it's her love language, it's just what she does and loves to do. I'm not like that at all, and prefer to keep my gift recipient list small and close because I can never get myself together to do more than that and I want no reason to have to "add" someone to my list, LOL! I never get the sense that she looks for any sort of reciprocation. For her it's simple...she loves to give gifts.

So...thank them so much for the unexpected gift, let them know you were delighted by it, and for their birthday, simply show them you were thinking of them. Birthday card in the mail is perfect. Do more if you want, but not because you feel obligated.

[daisyd]

I have a friend like this (mom of DDs' friend) and it's really hard to not feel guilty, but I agree to not feel guilty or that you have to reciprocate.

My friend is really well off and does gifts for everything - birthdays, elementary school graduations, Easter baskets, Halloween baskets, gifts for recovering from medical issues, etc...I never reciprocated on most of those because I knew there was NO WAY I could keep up (we don't have financial limitations, but I have time/energy limitations!). We do nice gifts for her DD's birthday (which we always have since she's one of our kids' best friends), and for her birthday I get her a card and a small bunch of flowers (these are cheap and easy to pick up at the grocery store) and drop it on her porch. She's not what I would call a close friend at all so I wouldn't be comfortable with gifting a pedicure date, etc.

I DEFINITELY think my friend thrives on gift-giving, it's her love language, it's just what she does and loves to do. I'm not like that at all, and prefer to keep my gift recipient list small and close because I can never get myself together to do more than that and I want no reason to have to "add" someone to my list, LOL! I never get the sense that she looks for any sort of reciprocation. For her it's simple...she loves to give gifts.

So...thank them so much for the unexpected gift, let them know you were delighted by it, and for their birthday, simply show them you were thinking of them. Birthday card in the mail is perfect. Do more if you want, but not because you feel obligated.

Wow! This sounds exactly like my 2 mom friends. In fact, I was thinking of the book and that gift giving is their love language, when I got those unexpected gifts

And, I have time/energy constraints in addition to living on a different scale from them ... I still haven't gotten round to writing thank you notes (though I promptly texted/emailed). Will write those thank you's tonight!