Beware, I'm starting this as a bit of a rant...we have noticed that some of the young people in our lives are not good about thanking us for birthday/Christmas/graduation gifts. I'm not expecting a huge thank you note, but a text or phone call or email would be appreciated. I'm not talking about a small gift like a candle; I'm talking about a large amount of money. The checks were cashed, but we did not hear from them at all.
Fast forward to this May and June...a friend's twins graduated from college. Each graduated from a differrent school. We sent a check to each and my husband made each of them a Christmas ornament with a graduation cap, their name, and the year. We received a thank you note from each. A real snail mail one in fact. It meant a lot. The sad thing is these kids probably aren't going to get anything else from us unless they pursue another degree because we aren't really close so it wasn't like they had an excuse to write in hopes of further gifts. Another friend wrote a thank you note to us because we treated him to a meal. So, in the span of two weeks we received three thank you notes. It was wonderful!
Being the frugal (or cheap if you want) person I am, I decided to figure out a way to recycle the fronts of the cards. I bought some cards and envelopes at the dollar store and so I cut the fronts to fit on the front of the empty cards. I decorated them with a few things that I have since I make many of my own cards. I like the idea of reusing the fronts of the cards.
It was a good exercise getting to work on these because our "craft" room (read craft, but really it's a room with lots of uses) is in the basement and it's cool there. We are under quite a heat wave here in Central Illinois.
Hope you all have a great 4th of July if you are American as we celebrate the 250th anniversary. I've had the privlege of celebrating both the 200th and now the 250th anniversary.
July 2nd, 2026 at 11:00 pm 1783033251
I told them that getting to spend time to have lunch together was more than enough, and I would much prefer if they didn't buy any of this, including the gift card, since that really costs them money. But they're adults now, so they kind of do whatever they want now haha.
Happy 4th of July and 250th anniversary for America!
July 3rd, 2026 at 07:14 pm 1783106061
Quick story: My mother had her will so her estate was split between me and one of her step-sons. Note *was*. He's nice enough, but already had a heart attack and in his early 70s. Not rich, but can cover his bills fine. He has only step children, and my mother kept complaining how those kids wouldn't give her the time of day unless they wanted money. So this year my mother figured any money going to him will just go to those kids and changed her will so I get everything now. No one knew he was in the will, so there should be no arguments about it.
It very possible by the time my mother dies that share of the estate would be over a million. Oh well.... karma.
July 4th, 2026 at 05:06 am 1783141582
I think a lot kids these days are just given what they want and they arent taught manners so when thigs like this happen they dont care..they dont say thankyou...thing is if you dont speak up they wont care...if that was me I just wouldnt give to them again for anything until they did show some sort of respect...because lack of respect these days is just out of control...for a lot of people its ME ME ME...
July 5th, 2026 at 02:01 pm 1783260067
Now I have some nieces and a nephew who are the offspring of my 2 half-brothers; after my parents divorced, my father was married to their mother, but she passed away a long time ago.
Remembering how exciting it was to receive money in the mail, I was sending cards with checks to the nieces and nephew for their birthdays and Christmas, but, feeling miffed, I have modified my gift-giving to only include those who thank me for them.
The parents of the one niece don't even bother cashing/depositing the check for 3 or more months sometimes, and once, they never did! This tells me they are sloppy about personal finances, let alone not very nice in not bothering to acknowledge $ gifts.
The niece and nephew from my other half-brother are very different. They always hand-write or text me a thank you. It's something. Though I suspect they don't enjoy the money but simply deposit it. Oh well. Times have changed.