2024-Give a Dog a Bone

Let me start by saying that I have already purchased X-mas gifts for my 2 cats, and my brother's dog. Max. Max's gifts are wrapped, because dogs really do like to open packages!

I actually found the SIL in this scenerio rude because she asked the writer to buy a gift for her dog. I don't find it rude because she asked it for her dog, I find it rude because she ASKED for the gift period. Gifts are supposed to be from the giver because they want to give them, not because they are requested to. Telling people to buy someone a gift is rude. I think the homeschool moo could have made less of a deal over it. Simply telling her SIL that she would like to give Fido something, but she had already gone over her X-mas budget would have sufficed. I think moo just wants a reason to bitch about her SIL. Could it be that she is jealous that SIL has a do instead of 50 million kids?

"Could it be that she is jealous that SIL has a do instead of 50 million kids?"

I meant dog instead of do--sorry!

Yeah, asking for gifts is uncouth. However, I think the conversation may have gone a little something like this...
SiL "what are the plans for christmas?"
moo "bratleigh wants a weewee doll, snottums has asked for a play station, shitford has simply been begging for a baseball and bat, and crappieann has to have a pair of (insert popular designer's name here) jeans"
SiL "Oh. My dog likes to open presents."
Moo "Wha??? How dare you!"

It's pretty easy for parents to imply that presents are required for their children without ever actually demanding presents.

Feh, that's what I was thinking too. The writer says SIL "demanded presents twice". I bet SIL has been giving presents to this woman's kids for years and this year decided she'd had enough and asked for a gift for the dog.

It's always interesting to hear both sides of a story like this one. I'm sure the dog owners version is much different. Maybe something like this.

Dear Abby, I buy my neices and nephews presents every year and have since they were born. (The oldest is 12). This year I suggested to my SIL as politly as I could that my dog likes presents too. Abby, a dog present costs $5-10 and I have spend hundreds on her kids over the years, do you think this is asking too much?
Dog owner in (name the city)

I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I concur to ask for ANY gift is fairly ballsy, not a level I would stoop to.

I do however have 5 nieces and nephews. Over the years we have bought them gifts for Christmas, birthdays, Easter, graduation...kids first step for Gods sake, and beginning this Christmas, I ain't buyin' shit for not a damn one of them.
I'm sick of going out of my way and not even receiving a lousy phone call or a little thank-you note inbetween all these gifts of giving. I'm also not buying anything for my two brothers, OR their lovely wives. This year, it's about my husband, my parents, and our dog. I'm through punishing myself, I just wish we'd of made this decision a few years ago.

Chao!

I would rather buy the dog a nice gift it will enjoy than an overpriced plastic piece of shit that will be forgotten by the brat the day after Christmas.

I agree that the moo is probably jealous. The fact that she is homeschooling her brats means she is probably some fundie fertfreak raising the next passle of little bigots.

Feh said:
"It's pretty easy for parents to imply that presents are required for their children without ever actually demanding presents."


My aunt demands! She popped out her one and only genetically engineered dream-star wonder sprog at the age of 45. My aunt is the youngest of my mother's siblings and by the time she had "Jacob the magnificent," all of his cousins were in thier 30's. She made sure she let all of us know that we needed to get Jacob something each year because it wasn't his fault that he was born so late in our lives, and needed to enjoy gift exchanges like the reat of the cousins did when they were little. She always tells me how he would love for me to get him games for his various game systems. Some of those games are $70. He's hyper and dumber than owl shit. I always get him books.

Sherz Wrote:
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> My aunt demands! She popped out her one and only
> genetically engineered dream-star wonder sprog at
> the age of 45. My aunt is the youngest of my
> mother's siblings and by the time she had "Jacob
> the magnificent," all of his cousins were in thier
> 30's. She made sure she let all of us know that
> we needed to get Jacob something each year because
> it wasn't his fault that he was born so late in
> our lives, and needed to enjoy gift exchanges like
> the reat of the cousins did when they were little.
> She always tells me how he would love for me to
> get him games for his various game systems. Some
> of those games are $70. He's hyper and dumber than
> owl shit. I always get him books.

So does my ex- SIL. She e- mails these ridiculously long lists, and nothing on them costs less than $100. She expects the whole family to go into debt buying her kid whatever he wants. If it doesn't cost top dollar, she considers it an insult.

DrDanCorelli Wrote:

The
> fact that she is homeschooling her brats means she
> is probably some fundie fertfreak raising the next
> passle of little bigots.

I thought that too. The fact that she called her family of four "small" implies to me that she wants to work toward a quiver-full.

Just go cheap. It shouldn't be the cost, but the thought that counts.
We ALWAYS gave our dogs gifts for each and EVERY single Christmas that we had her, for the years she was alive. She was such a neat pup. She deserved it. Unlike most brats, she was very well behaved, and just so darn cute.

---

lab mom

My mil once hinted for what my sil wanted for christmas. I got her what (I thought) she wanted. She has the audicity to say, "That's it?"

Hard to please, eh?

---

lab mom

I have presents for my furbabies (2 cats, Naruto and Sasuke). One is a cat tree and the other one is a jar of homemade cat treats I made and designed myself. Well, my Kin and their Quiver-Fulls are already begging, and here come the toys-for-toadlers commercials...Uh-uh. Not one cent towards the ungrateful breeders who NEVER call or send a thank you. I'm having Christmas with my cats and my boyfriend. ^^

Happily,
Penguin

We occasionally get our cats new toys and such around Christmas, but mostly we give them stuff whenever we feel like it. However, even with their "cat attitude", they're more grateful than a couple of my nephews.

DH and I decided from the get-go that those kids aren't getting squat from us. The clincher? When one of them opened a birthday card from Grandma, snatched out the twenty-dollar bill within, looked back in the envelope, and then said, "Just twenty?" It was all I could do to keep from going over there, taking the cash, and giving it back to Grandma. So...the nephews that view adults as walking ATMs get zip. We do things with the nieces and nephews who are fun and well-mannered, and it's a lot of fun. But the ingrates can kiss off.

What's wrong with buying a small bag of treats [Beggin' Strips, maybe], getting a roll of shiny wrapping paper [dogs like shiny!] and several old boxes - then putting a few treats in each box [so they'll rattle and make noise when the dogs investigate them - as well as have a delicious little present inside] and wrapping them?

The pets'll be happy, your wallet won't be cleaned out, and there's a bit of a revenge factor in that the owner will have a load of box and paper scraps to clean up.

At first, I sided with the moo and Abby feeling that it is impolite to ask for a gift. That is how I was raised. Pondering on this a little further, I also agree that there has to be more to the story than we have heard. I would also bet the homeschoolin' moo has more than received plenty of presents for her sprogs from in-laws and other relatives. All Moomie had to do was buy a can of Alpo and stick it in a box & wrap it. How hard is that???

RandomCFChick, my former husband's nieces and nephews are the like the greedsters you mentioned. My first X-mas with them when we were dating should have been a Tell All about these @sses as C*r*a and J*so* made snide comments as they opened their presents of how it HAD to be junk from Mervyns or JC Penney. I was nice and timid in those days but still wanted to slap the sh*t out of them. Now, I am NOT nice & timid...

"FUCK WORK"

We all know the reason the authors of that letter are bitching - because IT'S NOT A BAYBEE or a CHYULD! I wrote in to Abby about it. Here's my letter:

Regarding "IN THE DOGHOUSE," I am wondering would it have made a difference if SIL had a child and was asking for a gift for the child? My guess is that they probably wouldn't have a problem with it. A lot of people disregard animals as pets and don't see them as important or part of another person's family. I think this attitude is rude and rather insensitive.

There are many people who don't want children and feel that pets are a better match for them. I happen to be one of those people. I have two cats. Now, I never ask anybody for anything regarding my cats, but I see nothing wrong with SIL asking for a gift for her pet.

Many parents ask their relatives to buy presents for their kids during this time of year. Also, SIL bought them presents this year. I think it's also rude to say, "Take our presents back and spend it on your dog!" Just awful! What if they asked SIL to buy their kid a toy, and SIL refused? They'd be angry, I'm sure, so a little chewy toy bone or stuffed toy in a big box with wrapping for SIL's dog is not that big a deal. I think because SIL is asking for a gift for her a dog and not a human, I guess the authors feel it's not relevant, with which I completely disagree!

I think the authors need to open their mind and flip the script and think about the situation instead of making a huge deal about it and rag on SIL.

Assholes.........

CFScorpio Wrote:
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> Feh, that's what I was thinking too. The writer
> says SIL "demanded presents twice". I bet SIL has
> been giving presents to this woman's kids for
> years and this year decided she'd had enough and
> asked for a gift for the dog.

That's what I was thinking, too. The authors have probably been requesting specific gifts for their brats forever, so why shouldn't the SIL ask for a gift for her dog?

I never buy gifts for anyone's kids other than my brother's 2. He and his wife always buy something for our dogs and cats, and they've got pets that I like to buy for. Growing up in a family that always had tons of pets, it was commonplace to include the pets in everything. Sadly, my dobe/lab mix lost his hearing (he is 14 now) back in August so he doesn't hear the rattling of a wrapped gift anymore. I really miss seeing his excitement.

Last Christmas I went to visit my lifelong friend with 2 sons. The older one ran over to me and said, "Hey you! Where's my present?" to which I replied, "I bought something neat for your mom, let's go open it!" What did the little brat do? Punched me in the thigh, said, "Thanks for nothing!" and ran off. Thinking back, I remember taking a gift for her dog too. LOL

KidFreeLuvnLife Wrote:
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> I never buy gifts for anyone's kids other than my
> brother's 2. He and his wife always buy something
> for our dogs and cats, and they've got pets that I
> like to buy for. Growing up in a family that
> always had tons of pets, it was commonplace to
> include the pets in everything. Sadly, my
> dobe/lab mix lost his hearing (he is 14 now) back
> in August so he doesn't hear the rattling of a
> wrapped gift anymore. I really miss seeing his
> excitement.
>
> Last Christmas I went to visit my lifelong friend
> with 2 sons. The older one ran over to me and
> said, "Hey you! Where's my present?" to which I
> replied, "I bought something neat for your mom,
> let's go open it!" What did the little brat do?
> Punched me in the thigh, said, "Thanks for
> nothing!" and ran off. Thinking back, I remember
> taking a gift for her dog too. LOL


Awww..sorry to hear that about your doggies hearing loss (((HUGS)))

You're a good one, KFLL, cuz I woulda smacked the hell out of that little brat for punching me in the thigh!

I find this quite sad really. That people are so greedy they are asking for gifts.

I stopped buying nephews and nieces once they reached 18 and stopped buying their parents when they began producing the little darlings.

Couldn't afford to buy for everyone. As I have 15 of the little darlings who have started producing multiples of their own it was simply going out of control, especially when I have never been given a gift from any of the greed little so and so's. Not that I bought a gift for what I would get in return. I also got fed up of them whingeing that they had already got one of the gifts I chose, so that was it, said bye bye no more. and as for cousins I gave up on them years ago simply too many of them.

At least with a dog you get genuine unconditional love from them not like the human species.