What boy wouldn't LOVE a Disney Princess alarm clock?

The BBQ Pit
1

At least, that seemed to be the thinking at last year’s Boy Scout Troop “yankee gift swap” (or whatever they’re called: you draw numbers; #1 picks a wrapped gift and opens it, #2 picks a wrapped gift and can either open it, or grab #1’s gift etc.).

This year, the go-to gifts were apparently a set of rubbermaid-type cooking spatulas, and the ever-so-fun Barbie doll.

Did I mention, this is a BOY SCOUT party???

Needless to say, the poor fellows who opened each of these items got stuck with them.

What. The. Fuck? It is SUCH a dickish move to bring something like this to a BOY Scout party.

I found about this year’s loot when I noticed some new spatulas in our utensil jar. I asked Typo Knig about them, and he said Dweezil got them in the exchange. Dweezil, not unreasonably, was mad and tossed them on the ground in the parking lot; Typo Knig said “I understand, but we don’t litter” so he salvaged them. Heck, we needed 'em anyway.

Then they told me about the Barbie.

And as with last year’s charming prezzie, I am very :mad: on behalf of the poor fellow who got stuck with it. Hell, as disappointing as the spatulas were, at least we could argue that they might be used for meal prep for a campout (but with all-plastic handles, I wouldn’t try it!).

I don’t know if they’ll even do this swap in the future - I sure hope not. If they do, I would suggest that each boy has to hand it to an adult when he arrives, and have the adult write down who brought what. Information to be kept strictly confidential unless some crap turns up (in which case, process of elimination would show who lied about what he brought).

2

Disney Princess clock for a boy?
It’s time to masturbate to Belle!

3

My unit’s gift exchange runs the same way. I put in a coffee maker, got back a toaster. I guess I could’ve “stolen” the digital picture frame, but it most certainly would have been stolen from me.

Because of me, though, they have a rule - no salami. I can’t understand it, that was $20 worth of vacuum-sealed quality Spanish salami. Ingrates.

4

What’s wrong with a toaster? It seems about on the same level as a coffee maker.

5

I can understand having a gag gift exchange where everyone agrees to bring something stupid if it’s a group of teenagers/adults. But gradeschoolers? Just mean.

6

Nothing’s wrong (though I already have a better toaster); I just mentioned the specific detail for the sake of storytelling. My real ire is for the salami-haters.

7

After all, sometimes a salami is just a salami. Like this dream I had, me and my mom were on a train, and she was eating a salami when the train went into this tunnel…

Oooh, I’m having another of my headaches…

8

Aren’t you perpetuating gender role stereotypes by reinforcing the idea of gender appropriate gifts?

9

I’ve been with a few guys who would have loved a princess alarm clock as a child.

10

Yeah, but could they have stayed in the Boy Scouts if that became known?

11

Not these days. Back then they could have stayed but well the other boys might have made them a bit unwelcome.

12

Does Mulan count as a Disney Princess? 'Cause anyone who uses rocket artillery to fight off the Mongol hordes is okay in my book.

13

Yeah, she’s considered a Disney Princess. So is Alice in Wonderland, or at least Alice was considered a “Princess of the Heart” or some such nonsense when I played Kingdom Hearts…or as I prefer to refer to it, Final Fantasy: Disney.

14

Not that I’m condoning this, but I’m thinking the mother of the boy who brought the clock probably got some “extra” gifts for exchanges and what not and mislabeled or didn’t label the package. Wrong package grabbed.
Can’t explain the spatulas, though. Those are just bizarre.

15

Well, maybe somebody went nuts at Spatula City.

They sell spatulas.

And that’s all.

16

Good on Dweezil for at least waiting until he got to the parking lot to throw a little fit about his present. I know at his age, I would have had a lot of trouble holding my disappointment in. He’s the kid with autism, right? Sounds like he just earned his “There’s a time and a place for everything” badge!

17

Last year, one of the guys at my work grabbed the wrong gift to bring to the swap. He meant to grab a bottle of wine and instead brought…a half-empty bottle of wine (screw-top, so it wasn’t like a sticking-up cork would give it away). I wasn’t there but I’m told it was pretty odd. Especially because he was really embarrassed and didn’t tell the person until later, in private.

18

He’ll put his eye out with it!

19

From what I understand, the whole point of a Yankee gift swap is to throw a couple of gag gifts into the mix, so that the last person picking gets, in theory, the best prize.
I would however question using this format with an elementary and middle school-aged crowd. This is really the sort of thing you might do for an office party or with a group of friends where everyone knows going in that they might wind up with a shitty gift, but are mature enough to have a good laugh over it anyway.

20

Have you been spying on me again?