Vengeful Wife Gets Birthday Gift for Ungrateful Husband: Last Year's Gift, Rewrapped
A poster on Mumsnet is tired of gifts for her husband going unappreciated.
A kombucha kit gifted for a birthday last year has still gone unused.
So she's hatched a plan to rewrap and regift him the same kit again this year.
Relationships can be tough. They say "communication is key" so often it's become cliche, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. Honesty, open communication, and being able to accept that your partner is an entire person unto themselves, and not required to share your exact sentiments on even the most minor issues, are key to a successful longterm partnership.
It's easy to want to be petty, to try and "get revenge" on a partner you feel has slighted you in some subtle way. And while the internet can often be a spiteful and unforgiving place, some helpful commenters on Mumsnet may have talked one spouse out of taking a tiny gifting conflict to a whole new petty level.
A user named rockpoolingtogether made a post on the popular U.K. parenting blog to lament that their husband wasn't particularly passionate about gifts. For their part, they note, they love buying and giving gifts, and putting thought into things they think they'd like. "For the last few years," rockpoolingtogether notes, "...the gifts I have given him have been left unused or put in a drawer."
"Last year, I specifically asked him what he wanted and bought that. Once again, it's nearly his birthday, and the gift I gave him last year isn't used. The worst thing is, it is a time specific thing. He wanted to make kombucha. So I bought him a decent kit and it had the scoby (the live ingredient) included."
The poster reports that once she mentioned the kombucha kit sitting in their cabinet, he "got all defensive so I've not said anything since." Instead, the poster appears to be in silent aggravation over it all, especially since "he doesn't do gift giving": "It was my birthday recently and he hadn't bought me a present but took my son to choose some chocolates."
But in their aggravation, the poster has come up with a plan that will likely just aggravate the matter further: taking the unused kombucha kit from last year, and rewrapping it to give as his birthday gift this year.
Thankfully, the commenters overwhelmingly agreed that this would be too much effort for an act that wouldn't make the "problem" get any better. "Why would you bother doing that?" one commenter wrote. "Take your son and pick him some chocolates, why make the effort for him if he doesn’t for you." Another wrote, "Just do the chocolates. The kombucha was a gift for him to do with as he wished and he chose to do f*** all - fine, his choice."
Even those sympathetic to the poster feeling unappreciated felt that the passive-aggressive jab was too much. A thoughtful gift, after all, can be easily undercut if the giver makes it too much about their own thoughtfulness.
And many people struggle with birthdays, feeling more that they represent the passage of time, and a reminder of how much less of it they have now, than see it as a day for presents. If they "don't care about gifting," they might have a reason for it. And considering how, in the end, we all only have a limited number of gifting occasions on this big blue marble (at least for now), it's probably better to try and understand where a reluctant gift recipient is coming from than to try and force more vocal appreciation.
Though, of course, if we're not trying to dispense helpful advice, and just want to be amused ourselves, then we'd agree with this commenter: "That would be quite funny." So maybe she should just do it for the sake of a viral TikTok.
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