I caught my MIL regifting a gift we gave them...

17 years ago

LOL! First let me say that I whole-heartedly believe in regifting- I've done it before, I've just never "caught" someone actually giving something away we've given them. :) I'll admit, I got a pouty lip when I saw it.

My DH and I frequent the Harry & David outlet up in Oregon often since he does a lot of traveling for business up there. The outlet has AMAZING prices on all the great H&D fruits, flowers and gifts. We picked up a bunch of artichoke salsas last summer and gave DH's parents a pretty basket with some of their chips b/c we know they really like artichokes and all the ingredients inside. In fact we mentioned that it tasted VERY similar to an antipasto they can every year.

When we went to visit them after Christmas, we noticed that DH's brother had received all the goodies we gave mom and dad, LOL!!! I don't think they realized that we saw it- I'd never say anything anyway, especially about something so generic. It wasn't like I MADE it or anything. :) But like I said, I did get *slightly* bummed. They are very prideful about their antipasto- I don't think they liked our comment. That would be just like them. :)

Have you ever "caught" anyone regifting your gift? :)

Blessings!

Haley

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Comments (21)

cbtexas
17 years ago
That's weird that they regifted to your husband's brother. Do they think the brothers won't talk? Is it possible that they liked their gift so much that they wanted to give someone else the same gift?
glenda_al
17 years ago
So far so good!

hmmm never had artichoke salsa!
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"...cindylou, imagine if you can what it would be like after all you and your husband have experienced with your MIL if your own children grew up and estranged you..." If I had a child who estranged me, I would not think it had anything to do or not to do with my MIL. I would not think that they owed me a relationship because I tolerated my MIL (maybe I misunderstood what you meant by connecting my MIL into that idea). If my child estranged me suddenly and with no warning and if I asked and they said, "You know", and I truly didn't, I would make the assumption they didn't quite didn't know themselves. That they have feelings and upsets they don't quite understand themselves and that they needed time away from me to work them out. (This is assuming there's no mental illness or addiction. 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I live my life and you live yours, and I can offer my opinion and it's fair if you don't follow it. The person who's business it is, gets the final say. The person who has the most responsibility gets to decide. The person who takes the biggest risk chooses. We are none of us perfect people; but we don't squabble and manipulate and gang up on each other and form one alliance and then another to force family members to do what we want. And we don't stab each other in the back. That's such a bizarre concept to me. And we are very close--without melodrama. There's not a lot of conflict. So if a child told me, "I don't want contact from you because you wouldn't let me go to Aruba on spring break." I'd respect that. I'd figure sooner or later they'd understand. Or if not, sooner or later it wouldn't matter any more. I would absolutely believe that eventually they'd come back. 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I'm late to the party but this thread sure has been an interesting read! Can I say that I totally get why your husband loves that afghan? I'm a crocheter and believe me when I say that a handmade afghan is nothing less than a true gift of love. Not only do they take many many hand aching hours to make, they can also be quite expensive to do. I have special memories of my grandmother teaching me to crochet when I was 10 or so. She once made us a blue ripple afghan that we loved and I can still remember how all of us kids would fight over it. Now that I have nieces and nephews, I wanted to keep the tradition and crocheted ripple afghans for those family members. My husband liked the first one I made so much, he insisted we keep it. It doesn't match our decor at all but as Turquoise Rose so eloquently said, the quirky things can make a space feel more homey. It works in that regard for us and I'm hoping that it also rings true for my sisters homes as well. (They were made in each families favorite colors but don't necessarily match their decor) Might I add that it's only an afghan you're dealing with, if you could see my living room you'd understand why I say that. Our living room is rectangular in shape and in one corner we have a huge sized recliner that is facing my husbands reading table so he can watch streaming tv and read on his monitor. In my decor world, it's a monstrosity that is completely out of place, but in my husband's world it's his happy spot. It drives me crazy inside, but since literally every other space in the house is to my liking, I suck it up. My afghans: The one we kept For one sister and her family: My mothers
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azzalea
17 years ago
My gift? No

But many years ago (over 30), my cousin got married. One of the gifts she received and had on display was a ceramic bundt pan (cream with brown speckles). I particularly noticed it because it coordinated with the kitchen dishes I had at the time. Well, within the year, my aunt gave me that pan for either Christmas or my birthday. Guess the cousin didn't like it. Poor choice, because it's the best cake pan ever. I'm still using it. NOTHING ever sticks in that pan, it's so highly glazed. Sadly, a few years ago, it did get chipped, but luckily, the chip is on the outside, so I'm still baking in it and will continue to do so until that pan is in pieces.

I really loved that my aunt regifted that!
socks
17 years ago
I have absolutely no problem with re-gifting. I like to receive a gift no matter what! I suspect a girlfriend of mine has regifted me, but I don't care. Sometimes the gifts are a little odd, like things I don't think she'd buy me or from I store I don't think she visits. Fine with me.

Susan
jannie
17 years ago
My sister gave us a set of two bath towels last year, in a Christmas design. I never did use them. And I never found space for them on a shelf. They stayed in my bedroomm in a corner. So at Christmas, I re-gifted them to my sister in law. I feel SO GUILTY!
dotmom
17 years ago
I guess you could call this intentional re-gifting. For a number of years the same thigh-master was wrapped in different disguised ways and given to a number of family members at Christmases. Fun! Dottie
gadgets
17 years ago
Dottie: We did the same thing with an exceptionally ugly brown top in our family. We found unique ways to disguise-wrap it so the receiver didn't guess in advance. So much fun.

Shirley
debnfla8b
17 years ago
I have regifted but never a gift that has been used. Like what we received at my DH company Christmas party!!

It was a glass globe on a stand that you put a candle in to burn. When DH opened it up he thought the glass globe had decorative "snow" on it. NOPE...it was melted wax from the candle that had come with it. That candle was all gone and the candle inside it was wrapped in a Publix plastic bag with the receipt in from that very night!! LOL

And....the box it came in had....roach turds and rat turds in it!!!!!!!!!! NO JOKE!!! I was floored! Luckily we didn't open the box at the party while we were sitting down eating. I think I would have screamed if the turds had tumbled out into my lap during supper.

We will never know who "re-gifted" because the gifted were swapped around and anonamous. So I guess my DH got "turds" for his gift..hahahahaha!

Deb :o))
sue36
17 years ago
I received a wedding gift that had a tag to someone else tucked inside the box. I thought it was pretty funny, actually. Another gift I received I suspect was a regift. One of DH's cousins gave me a pillow (one pillow) for a shower gift. One of those tapestry-like pillows with fringe. It matches nothing I have, and if she'd looked at what I registered for she would have seen it wasn't "me" at all. One of my bridesmaids and I had a good laugh, imagining her plucking the pillow off a sofa and wrapping it the day of the shower. It was just so...random.
jannie
17 years ago
At my babyshower, I received a stroller (!) with a tag addressed to someone else inside. My guess is one of the gals at the party got two and regifted me with the extra. I tried not to notice the sticker. Please, if you're gonna regift, be careful!
kathleenca
17 years ago
And, then there's the philosphy that when a gift is given, it is given, & up to the recipient as to what is done with it. IE, the gifter no longer owns it & has no say or thought as to what happens to it down the line.

That said, it certainly is up to a recipient to be "discreet" as to where that gift winds up!

Kathleen
dibby
17 years ago
Our family have been re-gifting a can of sardines for several years. As dotmom and gadget said, we try to disguise it in different ways every year. My DH got it this year.
hale_bopp
Original Author
17 years ago
CB, it's possible, but the chances are very, very slim beings that they live in a tiny little town a couple of hours from shopping, and a day away from H&D. AND it was the only H&D item in there, ROTFL!

Some of these stories are a riot! I can't believe the gifts with tags to other people! ::Guffaw!::

Blessings!
Haley
dilly_dally
17 years ago
My cousin got married in 1975 and quipped to me how it was "year of the crockpot" and that she had gotten 'a bunch of them' apparently since they were new-fangled at the time.

Sooooooooooooo, what did I get for my wedding? Ten years later.

I especially liked the trendy Tangerine orange and Coppertone brown color stripes it had, when everything else being sold for kitchens in the '80s was mauve and teal. The box smelled like it was musty from a basement. I did not care though. I got good use out of it.
hale_bopp
Original Author
17 years ago
Hey Dilly, those colors are popular again! (orange and brown) Stylin'!

Blessings,
Haley ;D
joyfulguy
17 years ago
You're not going all to pot, at least, Dilly.

If someone doesn't plan to use a gift that I've given, I have no problem with them giving it to someone who may do so. Just sorry that I wasn't more sensitive to their real needs.

ole joyful
jannie
17 years ago
I got married in 1979 and I got 3 Fondue Pots as gifts. I don't think I ever made fondue in my life. All 3 pots are long gone. I think I donated them to charities. I didn't have the nerve to regift them.
trinitytx
17 years ago
An elderly gentleman neighbor of mine was an avid garage saler. He had found this really scary, ugly, huge mug that was hand crafted and had a horrible monster on the handle with a monster figure in the bottom of it. It was very very lifelike, and spooky as all get out.
He brought it home and his wife would not allow it in the house. So he gifted it to me, and told me the story of its fate. So began our Birthday re-gifting at work. I think I saw that one piece go to at least twelve people in the 20+ years I worked there.
It finally fell to it's demise when it was found shattered in a million pieces in someones attic.

How fun that horrible mug ended up being!

Trin
FlamingO in AR
17 years ago
Oh, yum, nothing like some nice 5 month old chips and salsa, Haley! lol I hope your BIL has a strong constitution. :)

I never caught MIL regifting the things we had given her, but when we cleaned out her house after she died, I think I came across about 3 things that we had given her over the course of 20+ years. And we had given her nice, pricey things. She kept one afghan, one of those heavy woven ones, and a clock made of inlaid woods and a handmade quilting basket. I remember snorting out loud once when she exclaimed "oh you always give the best gifts!". Woody and I both laughed because she never displayed or used barely any of the things we gave her but was always so proud of the tacky junk that her great-nieces and nephews sent up, stuff like the toilet piggy bank that "flushed" when you put money in it. Yeah, she liked that a lot. lol And the motion activated frog.

I regift, too, though, so I don't really have a problem with it IF the regift fits the recipient. Otherwise you're just being cheap. I would hate to get caught at it because I don't like hurting someone's feelings, but I am not going to keep something around me that I don't like and won't use, I'll donate it to the thrift shop if I don't have a friend that would like it.
hale_bopp
Original Author
17 years ago
LOL, Flamey- our MIL's must be related! She is strange that way. Always has been very picky!!! We got her SeedBallz this year, like 6 different kinds and it barely elicited a thank you! They have 2 acres and love to plant and SeedBallz are effortless to plant and grow. I love the things! No, not MIL. They'll go to someone else. ;)

Blessings,
Haley

Here is a link that might be useful: SeedBallz
missindia2020
17 years ago
For Christmas 2 years ago, my neighbor gave me a spice rack and a snowman mug in boxes that smelled like moth balls. Dumb me - I gave her a brand new instant wine chiller - she drank a lot of wine - she was dumbfounded to know that you are supposed to chill white wine. I don't even drink and I knew that!

I have regifted but ONLY making sure the box is intact, doesn't smell like anything and it fits the person.

I caught my MIL regifting a gift we gave them...

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I caught my MIL regifting a gift we gave them...

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