Expensive gifts from relatives, fair or unfair?

[Disney_Princess]

Re: Expensive gifts from relatives, fair or unfair?

@madz124

lol muzna, bohut jali hui lag rahi ho, yaar. I hear ya. I think the worst for me was when my aunt sent all (4) of her kids to our place for one month in the summer and we were expected to take them around everywhere (not just in Toronto but the instructions were, The Falls and any other must-see places wherever we can easily go). All my siblings and I were working in the summer, so we took turns and took a few days off here and there to accommodate them. Now these are kids (oldest was in Gr 12 at the time) so they didn’t have cash or credit cards. We paid for everything. All the places you mentioned and a few local spots like Eaton Centre, Gerrard St etc. In the end, my aunt thanked us for showing them so many places but she complained that we didn’t give her kids maximum company and that they were bored at times, stuck at home with my mom.

Some time later, this aunt and her dewar/dewraani (newly weds then) came to Toronto and everyone stayed with us. They wanted to see CN tower and shop around but because they aren’t familiar with the area, they took my mom with them as their guide. So listen to this, they go to the tower and buy tickets for everyone except my mom. My mom (then) had never been to the top of CN tower and she is a full time housewife (doesn’t drive either / doesn’t grocery shop or carry cash on her). So she basically stood there all by herself while they spent a good 1.5 hours up there. My mom felt insulted but didn’t say anything. They just told her, baaji you live here, you can always go later but it is more important for us to go and we hope you don’t mind. For $35? Really? And I personally spent about $200+ per kid when her kids stayed with us. I am not comparing the expenditure. My point is, if it was me, I wouldn’t have minded so much but I take offense when my mom feels humiliated and used like that by our own family members…especially when I see her trying so hard to please the same people.

This made me really sad. It’s so sad that people like this exist in the world.

I don’t have any relatives in Pakistan so that’s a plus point.