I had to reach out to a friend today for some emotional-mental guidance. Long story short, people either didn’t follow the registry – remember that I worked in that thing for hours and hours, truly curated what I wanted surrounding us and our baby – or didn’t fill okie the registry properly when they bought things. So, I got a lot of ugly stuff and a lot of multiples of things I wanted but only as singles. And, to ice it, most people did not give me gift receipts. Actually, for the most part, the people who followed the registry perfectly and filled it out properly also gave me gift receipts. No… that’s not true. Even those people didn’t have them for the most part. Okay, so, three people followed the registry and filled it out and gave me gift receipts, and one person halfway followed the registry, but included her receipt for all the stuff, both registry and not, so I could return any and all of it, as desired. So, four people gave me gift receipts. Out of 40+. That’s quite shocking, really. I hadn’t even thought of that until just now. Wow. Just wild.
So, anyway, working through how to manage that. I messaged this friend about it all and said how I knew it was all totally fine and okay, but that I was still totally crying and felt dumb for it, plus I didn’t know what to do about it all. She was very helpful. She assured me that, when people go off-registry for their purchases, they are taking a risk called ‘I might not like it/want it’. And I don’t need to feel bad about not wanting the things. It isn’t a lack of gratitude. It is simply something I don’t like. I am still grateful for their love and support in the form of their presence and presents.
I just also don’t like gray clothes almost at all, and am very particular about colors and patterns in general. So, when they decide to get gray clothes because they don’t know if the baby is a boy or a girl – and let’s remember that I had a specially curated list of clothes and everything else that I provided to all – they can pretty much guarantee that they’re giving me something I will not like. It isn’t personal. It’s just strong preferences.
On top of it all, I’m working not to have a bunch of excess and superfluous stuff in my life already, and especially so for the baby stuff. So, it was a bit of a disaster in that sense for me emotionally to have a bunch of stuff we either didn’t want or need (or both).
I know it may seem silly, but I was genuinely excited at every registry gift I received. And I was grateful incredibly to each person who provided the item or items. That person was directly surrounding me with things that I love and that will be very helpful in my life in the near (and, sometimes, distant) future.
Anyway, supposedly Target will accept returns for items that they for sure sell, up to a certain amount. So, I’m hoping that will handle a good chunk of this stuff. I intend to look further into this before showing up to Target with a bag o’ stuff. Even if it is a $100 limit, that still would be incredibly helpful. (Ironically, there’s a lot of stuff I actually like in the Target baby section, though smirky clothing…)
Thank you, God, for friends and love and understanding and help. Make me and the baby and my husband well and fit, please, and keep us safe. Thank you for this life. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2024
hannah ananas 