My elderly grandparents visited today. They’re back from Malta, where they go every year around this time. They usually bring back a trinket or two for my mother and me - a badly painted porcelain cat, a straw donkey, that sort of thing. Not as a joke - they’re genuine gifts. We put them away in the wardrobe for safe-keeping.
This year, they excelled themselves.
Let us take a moment to remember that both of my parents are profoundly deaf.
They got my mother…
A musical piano ornament.
It plays music. For their daughter. Who has been completely deaf all her life.
They’re neither cruel or senile. Just thoughtless, I guess. I did say to my granddad “She can’t hear it!” and he said “It’s an ornament”. It’s a small plastic piano!
Parents just do that as they get older. Just get used to it and find the humor, if you can. They mean well (I hope).
Think of aging as coming full circle. What kinds of presents did you give your parents when you were really young? They’re just doing the same back to you.
Luckily, mine haven’t gotten entirely to that stage yet, but every once in a while I get a book or an article of clothing from them that makes me doubt their sanity.
My parents are getting pretty wacky as the years go by.
For Christmas my Mom sent me a real fox fur hat. I am a strict vegetarian, and I avoid using any kind of animal products. I really thought she knew this!
She keeps asking me if I wear it. She mentions it in all her e-mails to me. I’m really confused, but I don’t want to sound like an ingrate, so I tell her it just hasn’t been cold enough lately to wear it, which is true.
In a somewhat similar vein, I absolutely hate chocolate. It makes me nauseous. I have vocalized this practically every single time the subject of chocolate comes up around my mother (which happens more often that you might think, oddly enough).
So pretty much every year, what do I get when my birthday or chistmas rolls around?
A gigantic mound of hershey’s kisses and one of those humongous 1lb hershey bars.
The first time she did this, I think she probably just forgot, or didn’t think about it. But I politely pointed out the error to her at the time, and her response was “Oh, when did that happen?” That has been her response every single year for the past 10 years. I’m beginning to think maybe she does it on purpose.
This isn’t nearly in the same league, but my sister-in-law is notorious for inappropriate gifts. One year she gave me a short-sleeve flannel shirt. I mean, I wear short sleeve shirts when it’s hot. I wear flannel when it’s cold. When am I supposed to wear this? Anyway, I live in Panama, so the only time I would ever wear it is when I go to the U.S., which is mainly in mid-winter for Christmas. Another time she gave me a Christmas tree ornament, overlooking the fact that I never have a Christmas tree of my own because I go to visit my family in NY then.
I can not, for the life of me, come up with one use for a short sleeve flannel shirt.
Odd things that I’ve been given (and I’m deaf also):
-Wind Chimes
-Some little toad statue that has a remote box that beeps when someone moves in front of it (supposedly to put at the end of my driveway so I can tell when someone pulls in.)
One of those keychain finders that beeps when you clap for it.
All of these have been given to me by an immediate family member.
The title of this thread sums up what I thought about my mother’s Christmas gift to one of my brothers last year. My brother is schizophrenic and believes himself to be Jesus. He obsesses over cable worship programs and anything having to do with the christian religion. In light of this, I thought it inappropriate to buy him another Bible.
