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I was convinced I would never use mine when my husband got me one. Then one day I played around with it. I've never gone back to paper books. It's just too convenient!
Same. I hated just the idea of not being able to turn a real page, and feel a real book, but I've had a Kindle, and later a Paperwhite, for years and now won't do without. Some libraries let you borrow books, plus there are tons of free books offered by Amazon each day. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, just sharing my thoughts about it.
As for OP, nobody gives us gifts anymore, but I hate for things to go to waste, so I'd give it away on a neighborhood app, or to a thrift shop if I couldn't return it.
My relatives who still exchange gifts with each other have used wish lists for many, many years. No insincere formulaic thank-yous or eyerolls required. Who cares what some economics guru spouts about the collapse of civilization? We know from experience that thoughtful gift giving is enjoyable for everyone involved. Isn't the season supposed to be about JOY, not egos or misplaced obligation? Wish lists work and actually decrease the amount of unwanted stuff going to waste. Heck, kids have been writing wish letters to Santa Claus for generations!
Seems pretty simple OP. When you ask the people you plan to give gifts to what they would enjoy (you do that, right?), give them suggestions for yourself. Things or experiences you appreciate. Save everyone frustration and hurt feelings. Redirect their energy where it will do the most good!
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-12-2022 at 03:56 PM..
We have 2 large families we buy gifts/receive gifts for. I'm at an age where truly, it's more about seeing family and enjoying family than it is about 'getting' gifts. I've received gifts that did not excite me...but it's OK. I'm glad I got to see and visit with the person who gave it to me. Last year, I got candles from the dollar store from a couple of young kids...man...I don't need dollar store candles. lol But I appreciated the thought, and I appreciated the trouble they went through picking out a gift. But life is just that much nicer getting something you'll actually use and appreciate.
We have 2 large families we buy gifts/receive gifts for. I'm at an age where truly, it's more about seeing family and enjoying family than it is about 'getting' gifts. I've received gifts that did not excite me...but it's OK. I'm glad I got to see and visit with the person who gave it to me. Last year, I got candles from the dollar store from a couple of young kids...man...I don't need dollar store candles. lol But I appreciated the thought, and I appreciated the trouble they went through picking out a gift. But life is just that much nicer getting something you'll actually use and appreciate.
Edited to add: One thing that has helped me for a long time is making notes to myself when I happen to stumble on a potential Christmas or birthday gift for someone during the proceeding year. Pull the page out of that catalog I happened to flip through, save a web link, jot a note while roaming a store. Put them away for future reference. Sometimes the lightning strikes in July or January. No law says you need to wait until last-minute December!
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-12-2022 at 04:57 PM..
I love my Kindle. :-) I like to read, and I have a whole library at my fingertips.
But in your case, if it were me, I'd pre-empt the SIL and let her know that electronics has never been your thing, and that you're trying to prevent hurt feelings, so "these are things I could really appreciate and use."
^^This^^ Back when I was married, I made it very clear to those with whom I'd exchange gifts that as big as a reader and music lover as I am, I have/had zero interest in owning an iPod or a Kindle and, when they came along, an Alexa. What I did suggest were genres or specific books that I would like to own, magazines that I might enjoy, etc., which ended up with a giver with more money in his or her pocket and a giftee who didn't have to wonder what to do with an unwanted iPod.
Oh no no no! Haven't you heard that gifting from a wish list is contributing to the crumbling of Western civilization? Along with Starbucks lattes and something else I've forgotten.
Something like that and while this may be said in jest.....
..........I have to come to loathe wish lists from others. I have a friend who likes people to buy her the things, very expensive things she wants. Come birthday and Christmas, she tells others what it is on the list and I hate that for to me, it makes me feel like she just sees us as a source of toys for her.
Not liking to read them from others, I am not likely to put them out myself.......but that's just me.
In the grand picture of protocol, are there others who see wish lists as not the thing to do?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1200RT
Return the item.
Or use it. How do you know you wont have a use for it unless you try it? Side note - surely you know what an ipod is. Apple has sold like half a billion units.
In reverse order, returning it is possible, but it is something I have never done because mostly, I don't like being part of that mob.
On Ipods, no, not really. Every new gadget that shows up, I don't have time to learn about it, know about it. After all, I thought 5G were advertising words about a particular brand of cell phone and not the industry standard for cell phone technology.
As far as Kindle goes to the above and all the others, speaking only in mechanics and not the politics, reading on a computer screen hurts my reading speed, I have to slow down to reading out loud speed and slower, move away from just seeing the word and know it. For me, I am quite proud that I am "The Night of the Camera" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0748515/.......and I certainly don't want to use something that takes that away. Which makes a rather interesting coincidence to all those who say and say over and over, never getting the message of "I said NO".............. "just try it!" as that episode was about opium smuggling. "Just try it, the first taste is free.".
As far as the SIL, well, she's gone now but having seen it twice, to Mom, to Me, of hearing Mom after she visited, "They have every new electronic gadget you can think of,", I am sure there are others like that out there. It wouldn't surprise me if her children carried on the knack of such gift gifting.
As it is, we siblings and their children are pretty much out of the the gift giving to me except for things like figurines and stuffed animals, which does touch my heart, or maybe bottles of wine. The wine I can't drink but it can go into the wine cellar for when guests stop by.
But what about the long lost Uncle from the old country who is not on the message traffic? The brother to the one who left in his will the sum of fifty million gherkins?
So the question is out there, for me, for others in the world, for whatever the gift that they aren't going to touch, how does one handle it so not to start the feud between the Hitachis and the MacLinks?
Any gifts I have no use for, I put away and regift or donate. It seems like a colossal waste and disservice to our planet to get or give wasted gifts, so I let the people who routinely give me gifts know what I would enjoy, aka, sending a text around Thanksgiving with "ideas" or just telling people. They are always appreciative.
I wonder if it would be helpful to give this SIL a "wish list" on Amazon or somewhere else of things you actually would like. Everyone in our family has very different tastes and no one would be successful in trying to shop for each other if we didn't make lists and shop from them. The way we do it, we aren't wasting money on things people have no use for and everyone winds up with gifts they want and will use.
If you wind up with a kindle, you can always return it to Amazon and get print books. But if it were me, I'd try the kindle before I return it. I was convinced I would never use mine when my husband got me one. Then one day I played around with it. I've never gone back to paper books. It's just too convenient!
Not me I hated it. Drove a friend crazy that I never used it, after having it lying around for years. She came over one day uninvited and spent hours uploading updates so it would work then loaded a bunch of books on it. I still had no interest in it. Finally sent it to amazon for a $5 gift card when they were doing that old kindle collection thing. I look at screens all day at work. At home I want to read a book.
Another poster was calling the OP an "analog person". Is that what we technophobes are being called now? It fits I guess. My watch is plain Timex analog
My nieces and nephews gave me home made gifts when they were children, and no gifts once they got too old to give home made gifts. Now they are adults and the family gift giving has stopped all around thank goodness.
Not me I hated it. Drove a friend crazy that I never used it, after having it lying around for years. She came over one day uninvited and spent hours uploading updates so it would work then loaded a bunch of books on it. I still had no interest in it. Finally sent it to amazon for a $5 gift card when they were doing that old kindle collection thing. I look at screens all day at work. At home I want to read a book.
Another poster was calling the OP an "analog person". Is that what we technophobes are being called now? It fits I guess. My watch is plain Timex analog
My nieces and nephews gave me home made gifts when they were children, and no gifts once they got too old to give home made gifts. Now they are adults and the family gift giving has stopped all around thank goodness.
Thank you! That is a lot of my world especially in the years of "I spend 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, in front of 8 computer and 2 huge TV screens.......and then I am expected to watch the world on a small screen in my hand? I don't think so!".
On the analog note, an interesting side point. Before cataract surgery and perfect vision, I had my prescription ground into my dive mask. Well, I found that underwater, I really couldn't read my digital instrumentation so when I could, I shifted back to analog gauges, an analog watch.
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