The worst person in your life to buy presents for

Inspired by @plasticniki’s frankly COMICAL assertion that her mum has no interests, then listing three interests.

Moratorium on mum jokes for this thread, please.

My mum has actually no interests beyond looking at house prices. I’m so glad my nieces came along when they did, because if she didn’t have looking after them to fill her time I don’t know what she’d do with her retirement.

As such, she’s impossible to buy gifts for. I stick to Interflora now.

yeah, mum’s are shit to buy stuff for eh? get a fucking hobby mum.

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I think we need to hear about @_Em’s brother in here, too.

MY MUM likes reading books and re-painting walls. All the time. Rooms are probably growing significantly smaller every year.

tub of paint and a new roller

happy birthday

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Dead easy to buy presents for though, eh. Paint rollers, books about masking tape, etc.

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my mum hates flowers. doesn’t drink. doesn’t like cooking. doesn’t like “clutter” around the house so can’t get her books / music.

she is a NIGHTMARE.

i am sure i did quite well at Christmas but really cannot remember what

Theatre, though. Loads you can do with that.

theatre tickets and…

Father-in-law. The most practical person I know. Has no time for frivolity or, I think, even pleasure. We once bought him tape to strap his ankles (he runs) as it was the only thing he needed. He likes wine (Rioja only) and that’s what we buy him 95% of the time now.

It would be my mum. I usually go with a cookery book, but an interesting one. i.e. stuff to read and discover as well as recipes. She rarely reads them though.

My dad’s brilliant/annoying. For years I bought him music, as no-one else gets him music and I know what he’ll like. Problem is he’ll forget I got it him as a present and give it back to me, or he’ll buy it himself again as he remembers he liked it but doesn’t remember he owns it.

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Opera glasses.

A cape.

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not when I’ve bought theatre ticket tokens LOADS. she doesn’t actually like theatre, she’ll go and see any old shit.

also last time I bought her actual ticket for something she complained we were up too high and we had an actual proper argument in the theatre so I am never doing that again

My sister’s pretty tough to buy for too, actually. I tried getting thoughtful gifts for her and they went down like a lead balloon, so now I tend to get her something expensive with a gift receipt.

I think all parents should have a ‘thing’, even if it’s fake, but have a ‘thing’ for fuck’s sake.

My dad has a train set set up in the garage. He hardly ever uses it, but it means my siblings and I can add to the pile of unused buildings, tracks and rolling stock each christmas and birthday.

My mum has nothing and it irks me.

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I got her a tablet for Christmas and a 4g SIM that I pay for. Showed her how to look up stuff on Rightmove etc.

I keep getting emails from giffgaff saying there’s more than 99% of the data allowance left each month. Whenever I ask how she’s getting on with the tablet she says “oh, fine”.

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My dad will be 85 next month; after c40 years of buying him presents I am starting to run out of ideas

Get her a Cineworld membership thing then.

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In their retirement, my parents have become very easy to buy presents for. They’re able to spend time doing hobbies now, so they’re into ballroom dancing and gardening and box-sets; my mum has got into craft stuff, and my dad is into astronomy.

One of my closest friends is really hard to buy for though. He’s in to tennis and Back To The Future, but not much else. He has a spring birthday, so if I get Wimbledon tickets in the lottery, that’s an easy one, but if I don’t, it can be a bit of a struggle.

I’ve started to get group activity gifts for our circle of friends, rather than presents as it’s just good to do something together. The next one is white water rafting at Lee Valley.