Here's a great one.
My wife's family had always used their giant family Christmas party to spoil the kids in the extended family with massive piles of presents. Directly opposite of my family's experience (there was a random gift exchange where all individuals received one gift, and also one from my grandma). So about 10 years ago, my wife and I get lectured by an aunt about how we're old enough to now start to contribute, as Christmas is "all about the kids." Uh, no, sorry. I bought cheap, $5 gifts for each kid and did that each following year. It's not my responsibility to make sure the cousins (and their kids) in the family have giant piles of presents. That has always been Santa's job. It angered me so badly that I was required to spend hundreds of dollars on presents for extended family members that I see once a year, and who were so ungrateful, with zero thank yous and parents who didn't pay attention to their children's wild, gift-opening behavior.
Eventually, we got the family to move to a gift exchange (again, only for the kids) with a $50 limit (we suggested $30, but the powers that be in the family decided that was too low).
That came with a great lecture from one of her aunts about how we shouldn't have bought such an expensive car if we couldn't afford to buy her children presents...she bought a used car, why couldn't we have done that instead? 
So this year, we have to buy for a senior in high school. We asked his parents for ideas, and they suggested an $80 polaroid camera that he really wants.
Uh, I'm sorry....it's a $50 limit. Where do you get off telling me to spend more than that? When we reminded them of the limit and asked for other ideas, we were told by them "well you can always go shopping on Black Friday for a deal." NO! You don't get to tell me that I have to buy your kid a gift that is more expensive than the limit, and I have to spend time away from my family on a holiday weekend, searching for a deal for YOUR kid.
Radio silence for a week, since we're mad and have some thoughtful gift ideas instead that are college related for the kid. My wife gets a text from her cousin, saying "I'm going Black Friday shopping and I'll buy the camera for you." What the hell is that? We told her that we already bought him gifts and left it alone.
We've talked about making this the last year we attend her family's big Christmas party for a number of reasons, this being the latest.
Topic: Things that I find mildly irritating v.2 (Read 308314 times)
