Wife 'Gifts' Husband A Trip To London To See His Favorite Football Team Play — But Expects Him To Plan And Pay For The Trip
This doesn't seem like much of a gift at all.
brizmaker | Shutterstock It’s always nice to receive a gift. The fact that someone would go to the trouble of giving you something special, whether it’s store bought or handmade, is truly touching.
One man got a gift from his wife that he thought was absolutely incredible until he had to accept the reality of it. For his birthday, she gifted him a trip to London, but it wasn't really a gift at all. She informed him that he would be on the hook for planning and paying for it.
One husband thought he got the gift of a lifetime from his wife until it never really came to fruition.
In a since-deleted post on Reddit a man vented about the birthday "gift" he received from his wife that he thought was absolutely incredible, until he realized it wasn’t much of a gift at all.
“Last year for my birthday, my wife gave me a present,” he said. “I opened it up and it was a puzzle.”
This may not sound like the most exciting gift, but it had more layers to it than he initially realized.
“I was told to put it together, which I did, and it had a vague London scene on it,” he explained. “Then I was told to flip the entire puzzle over and [found] that the back of the puzzle had the word ‘surprise’ written on it.”
His wife said she was gifting him a trip to London to see his favorite sports team play, but she hadn't actually planned the event.
“I didn’t really understand where this was going, but my wife then told me that she was taking me to see my favorite football team play in London,” he continued.
Naturally, the man was over the moon with this exciting news.
“I was pretty blown away by this,” he said. “So I asked when we were going.”
That, unfortunately, was the problem.
“She told me she didn’t know my schedule so she hadn’t booked anything,” he stated. “I asked her if she had talked to a travel agent, or if she had saved any money to do this (I’m the only one that works in our house).”
“‘No,’ she said. ‘I just figured you would book it.’”
Anna Subbotina | Canva Pro
That’s exactly where things have remained for all of this time.
“Here we are a year and a half later, and I have been unable to take time off, and I’ve also been unable to come up with expendable income to buy tickets for both of us to travel to England and attend the match (from America) and provide childcare for our five kids while we watch a game,” he said.
The husband feels frustrated that his birthday gift wasn't really a gift at all, and it's compounded by the fact that his wife’s feelings are hurt.
“And every once in a while, she brings up … how disappointed she is that I have not appreciated her gift,” he explained.
He recalled, “I finally turned [to] her and explained to her what a gift was and how her giving me permission to do something that I want to do, but can’t afford to do, with the stipulation that I arrange all of the travel and expenses was not an actual gift.”
“Now she’s offended and ‘hurt’ that I don’t appreciate the gift that she has given me,” he stated.
Although things didn’t quite work out with the gift, his wife was on the right track.
This is one gift that definitely missed the mark. In fact, whether it even counts as a gift is debatable.
However, this man’s wife did get one thing right.
According to CNN, it’s always better to “gift experiences rather than things.” They said research from psychologist Thomas Gilovich “shows that money spent on doing provides more enduring happiness than money spent on having.”
So, giving the gift of a dream trip was a great idea. Unfortunately, it was only that — an idea. It’s unlikely that this man’s trip to London will ever actually happen.
In the future, it would probably be better for his wife to stick to things she can afford and plan herself. Expecting the recipient of the gift to plan it out and pay for it just doesn’t feel the same.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.