As a parent, all I can say is “Thanks a bunch!” :rolleyes:
First, you’re sending anonymous packages addressed to me. So I think there’s someone stalking me, and my wife thinks – well, whatever exactly she thinks, it’s not good.
Then we open the packagesand find expensive gifts for one or more of our kids. Oh, joy. Creepy stalker maniac hussy trying to steal a husband has now targeted my kids. You know their names, ages, sexes, birthdays and likes and dislikes.
What comes next? Hanging around their school waiting for them? Mysterious hangups when one of the adults answers the phone? A bunny rabbit boiling in a pot on the stove?
One might wish to Google one’s children and otherwise check places like Amazon to see if they have wish lists posted, and if their address is visible.
f you’re getting gifts your kids want, and their address on Amazon (or whatever) is hidden but begins “C/o Mr Rhymer,” the sender may not actually know your address.
Hypothetical, I 'spose. It’s a situation in my novel. I didn’t label it as a novel thread because, when I start those, I’m usually trying to think things out and am looking for help brainstorming. In this case I already know what’s happening in the story and what I what to happen; I just started to wonder, “What if this were occurring in real life?”
I may write a confession short story with this as a premise, actually.
In the abstract, right now, I’d say keep the gifts or sell them on ebay or pass them on to some other kid at the next birthday party or something.
But in real life…I have no idea at all how I would respond…I might do anything from call the cops to poilitely check in with everyone I’ve ever spoken to, to losing sleep over it, to moving to a new city…My kids have a way of setting off unexpected and unexplainable emotions in me, so anything I say now is not guaranteed to be acurate.
To be honest, if I read about such a situation in a novel, and the parent(s) did anything other than what IvoryTowerDenizen said – regard them as unsolicited mail – I would be very irritated. IRL, I wouldn’t get as far as opening them and finding out that they’re gifts, expensive or otherwise. The package could be a bomb, for all I’d know. I would be afraid of it because it was unsolicted, not because of the contents, since I’d never find out about the contents. I hate that device in fiction. “Ooh, a package with no return address that I didn’t expect! I think I’ll open it! Ooh, a scarf! I think I’ll put it on! Ooh, wait, why do I feel dizzy…[klunk]”
I’m assuming, from the other threads about your book, that these are gifts from the missing-and-presumed-dead bio-dad? If so, he’s military, right? Why would he think that sending anonymous bling was a sensible way to re-establish himself with his kids? (No offense, just curious.)
Seriously? You would refuse a package at the post office if you didn’t know what it was without any history of getting strange packages?
Erm. I get things from people all the time that I wasn’t expecting. Friends send me books, or family members send tchotchkes, sometimes direct shipped, generally unsolicited. Haven’t gotten a bomb yet.
If it was a friend or family member, their return address would be on the package. I wouldn’t accept anything without a return address. Of course, what Ferret Herder said makes it moot. But I don’t need a history of strange packages, or anything else suspicious, to be cautious.
A compass? Like the magical one you talked about in the BOOK thread? So then why tell us it has nothing to do with the book?
IRL, no way are the kids getting the stuff, and I’m giving it to the cops. In your fantasy book wold, Hermione tells McGonagle who confiscates the brrom/compass/book.
I would probably assume that they were from wealthy spinster Miss Havisham, only to discover that the wealthy benefactor is none other than the escaped convict Abel Magwitch!
I lack this sense of caution. If an unexpected parcel without a return address arrived, I’d be busting it open as fast as I could to try to solve the mystery of who, what, where, why… Obviously my sense of self-preservation needs some work.
In the scenario in the OP I’d be creeped out, I wouldn’t give the presents to the kids and I’d start an immediate telephone survey of all friends, family members and neighbours to try to work out who it came from. If no one owned up, it would go in the back of the wardrobe in as much of it’s original packaging as possible, with the idea of keeping it as evidence should a situation develop in the future. If I was a father and these things arrived for every birthday and Christmas, I’d start becoming suspicious of my wife’s movements and would think about some sneaky DNA testing - unless the child was adopted. It just seems like the sort of action an estranged relative would take, so in the absence of a grandparent, aunt, uncle or the like who was an obvious suspect because of a family feud, my next fear would be that someone else thinks they are the bio-parent of the child.
I don’t even have kids and the idea creeps me out. However, that applies only to physical parcels that display the sender’s knowledge of the intended recipient.
I’m wondering, would you have the same reaction to anonymous gifts of cash? Say, you got a wad of hundreds in an envelope shoved under your door, or a cheque from some lawyer representing an anonymous donor, or an unexplained deposit in your bank account? Assume that it checks out as real money, no counterfeit cheques or whatever.
The reason I ask this is that one of my fantasies after winning the lottery is to be on the other end of such an anonymous foundation, giving money away. I’m now wondering whether that would be harder than I thought.
As much as I would love to have an extra wad of cash right now–and as sweet as your idea is–an unexplained stack of bills neatly placed at my doorstep, particularly in large denominations, would make me very very suspicious. I wouldn’t even touch the stuff.
Ditto with strange, expensive, unmarked gifts–and if it were my kids I’d really start freaking. The mere fact that a stranger would (apparently) know my kids’ names, ages, and interests creeps me thoroughly out.
We can test this out. If people will send lots of wads of cash anonomously to TokyoBaby, to be born in October, I promise to report back if I pass the money along or keep it myself.
For the OP, no way that I would give the presents to the children. You have no idea who the sender it and the possibility of something harmful outweights any possibility gain for the child.
Also, as posed in the OP, it’s not just once but continues. Someone is stalking the kids. I share jsgoddess’s concern that someone would send gifts, then tell the child at some point that he-she was responsible.
Okay, so if I understand correctly the sitch would be as follows:
Maybe around birthday time an unsolicited X-box shows up at the door. Then, around Xmas, a handful of games. Then, maybe Easter time, a nice DVD player?
Hmmm. I order a lot of stuff online and would probably think for a second that I’d been sleep-shopping. Kidding.
This is pretty difficult to imagine. Kindness of strangers and all. I think that once I’ve thoroughly examined the packages, I’d give them to the kids. Who DOESN’T want an X-box? Maybe I’d write it off as a contest unthinkingly entered and actually won. I’m not positive that I’d go with the sinister angle. Probably just be thinkin’ somebody’s pretty stupid to send a present without a card.
