When looking for Christmas presents for my girlfriend I had an idea of something I wanted to do. It involved being quite artistic and creative which I am not so last month when my girlfriends family met up for a small get together, I asked her 16 year old could who is doing an art qualification if she’d help.
I’ve been with my girlfriend for 4 years so I’ve known her family for a while and her cousin has joined us on days out, meals out etc so we get on well.
She agreed to help and said she’d have the gift ready for the next family catch up before Christmas. That was this weekend and it will be the last time the entire family get together until next year so we all exchanged Christmas presents.
As a thank you for her cousin helping, I bought her a small gift which I gave to her at the get together. Some of the other family members said it was weird that I’ve bought something for her and that I shouldn’t have done it.
Even after explaining why they still said it was suspicious. I pointed out three’s nothing wrong with what I’ve done but they wouldn’t back down on claiming I was wrong for doing it.
AITA for buying her a Christmas present?
NTA. It’s very thoughtful and kind of you. That’s ridiculous
NTA. You did a nice thing and something very standard even among “strangers” I once gave a work colleague a spare guitar tuner I had lying around and he got me a box of chocolates as a thank you.
NTA at all. i think that is a very decent and normal thing to do. It is really weird your gfs family reacted that way, what present did you get her?
NTA. Unless the gift was in some way provocative, your girlfriend’s family is being weird about the whole thing.
More info: what gift did you give your girlfriend’s cousin?
NTA on the surface. I would’ve paid the cousin for her work on the girlfriend’s gift instead of gifting something though.
NTA. Some people have very peculiar minds. A good deed never goes unpunished: I think that saying fits what happened.
NTA, you were expressing gratitude for someone helping you, that makes you a nice person.
NTA. Definitely. Sounds like a lot of jealous people around you.
NTA
Your girlfriends family is weird. You did a nice thing in gratitude for a service she provided.
Bet they’d also be the people telling you that you took advantage of the 16yo creativity if you didn’t get anything for her
NTA
It was very thoughtful and entirely correct to buy a thank you gift for her helping you. People are weird anymore about others taking a teenager’s feelings into consideration and like to jump to unfair conclusions, and in a small way it’s understandable in today’s society, however you’ve known this girl for 4 years and I’m assuming it’s never come up before about any untoward behavior so it’s just ridiculous that the family is acting this way.
You didn’t supply the most important detail. What was the gift? Without that information, it’s kind of hard to make a judgment call.
NTA would they have been less weirded out if you had just handed her cash? If she’s doing art she should be paid. She was willing to do it for free so a gift was a nice gesture.
NTA.