• DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Can we trade? Every year I ask for socks, sunscreen, and cash, and I get useless stuff that is so lovely but so useless to me.

    I’ve got a luxury nail care manicure set for Christmas this year that I’ll be hauking as soon as my family blink so I can buy some sunscreen for myself for Christmas since I’m out and I need it.

    It’s a thoughtfully misguided gift - they know I go to get “treatments on my hands” and they keep thinking this is at a spa, so a kit to do it myself at home is a thoughtful gift to help me save money.

    Except that I’ve explained thousands of times “it’s medical treatment, at a physiotherapist clinic, for palsies, not relaxation treatment, at a spa, for pleasure”

    I can’t even really use the manicure set by myself because of the palsy.

    For my actual nails I just bite, and occasionally file them… like a normal guy.

    I was made redundant this year in November, so I need cash and socks, not a manicure set.

    I hate feeling so ungrateful towards gifts. But I really do feel like they’ve gifted me guilt, when I asked for socks.

    • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
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      12 hours ago

      I know it’s off topic but I need to ask: what sunscreen are you currently using? I haven’t been very happy with my latest choices and could use some recommendations.

      I’m so sorry you didn’t get the gifts you wanted and actually need. Especially since you got laid off. Under those circumstances gifting cash, gift cards and help is the nicest thing to do.

      To be honest, a manicure set is a pretty horrible gift even if it is meant to be helpful or nice. I got a cheap one when I was a kid and I hated it too 😅 but with palsy especially - and just because it has to do with “nails” doesn’t make it equivalent to medical treatment. It reminds me of getting drugstore face cream when I started to be more into fragrance free, puristic skincare. Just because both is cream it’s not equivalent.

      For us it has become just asking “what do you want?” and sending each other amazon links. That’s not really… The point of gifts. Moreover, if I need something, I end up ordering it right away anyway. If I need a new jacket, I won’t wait until the end of december to get it. The things that would be kind of a present (let’s say skincare products) don’t sell via amazon, but ordering anywhere else is also too much of a struggle and impossible task for my family. Or I would need to try it on (e.g. expensive new winter shoes), but then if it doesn’t fit I have to get them involved in returning the item.

      And when I get a gift card (also usually amazon) I end up not using it for the longest time because I keep thinking “it’s a gift, I should buy something nice and cool from it, not just this little thingy I need right now. Not screws, not a calendar, not wall hooks,…” And then I end up not using it for most of the year until I eventually use it to buy necessities after all. I got gifted a voucher for a perfume and makeup store once, and this year I ended up using it… To buy perfume as a gift for my sister. I just can’t make myself spend money on something I would just like, it seems excessive.