The day actually started off all right. Kate and myself got up at 6am, got ready then woke the kids up. We presented them with their stockings, the majority of it being chocolate and a few small toys and loads of glow sticks. For some reason both kids love them.
We started to get the kids ready and before we knew it, we were bring asked, “can we open our presents yet?!” Being me, I was going to make them wait until after breakfast, so were all proper awake and in the mood for the rest of the day of arguing, shouting and the general “dad, she took my toy, tell her” crap. Instead I thought, fuck it; “They can open one present now before breakfast”.
We let them have the pick of their presents and obviously Ryan went for the biggest. Chloé went for the nearest one, she didn’t seem to care which she opened first. They both sat there and ripped their presents open as fast as they could. Chloé struggled. Ryan got his open, a slight smile appeared then disappeared on his face very quickly, and then he asked to open another one.
As I sort our money out (pay the bills and determine what gets spent on what) I knew I wasn’t going to get any presents and I was fine with that. All I had been asking for on the run up to Christmas was a nice day, photos of the joyous occasion and some gratitude for their presents that we had spent loads of our money on.
I didn’t even get a thank you from either of the kids. From Chloé I don’t expect it. Not sure why, but I didn’t, but, I certainly did from Ryan. He knew how much we had spent on him. There was no thank you, or even a “wow that’s cool”. It was more like, “yea, now what else do I have?”
The ungratefulness really hurt. A lot of thought, money, time and effort went into picking those presents out, all I wanted was a thank you. I didn’t even get that. So, me being me, I decided that instead of arguing, I’d drop it, and I hid up stairs for the next couple of hours to cool down.
It’s really heart breaking to give someone gifts (expensive ones at that!) and not even get a thanks or appreciation on receipt, even if they don’t like it! Due to all of that, I missed them opening their presents, I missed the play time and I didn’t get any photos, therefore no proper memories of the day.
The annoying thing is, that present that Ryan opened first, it was his Guitar Hero – Band Edition, and since Christmas, he’s been playing on it every day so I know he likes it. In the end he did say thank you, but only after Katie told him to say it. To me, it was a forced thank you and doesn’t mean anything. I hope next Christmas will be better.
How was your Christmas? Were there any arguments? Have you experienced the same as myself, if so how did you deal with it?