Times your parents bought you the wrong things...
Discussion
alorotom said:
8Ace said:
Nothing like the above, but i do recall one of the early comic relief events where you could buy red noses. Everyone at school had the official charity red nose, with their lovely soft plastic for ease of putting on and off.
My parents thought that £2 for one was an extravagance, so I had to go in wearing a ping pong ball, with a section cut out of the side to put it on. It was coloured in with red marker pen.
Not only was it about half the size of the official ones (making it look like I had a cherry tomato stuck to my face), the section cut out of the side was roughly done and it felt like i was like wedging my nose between the blades of a pair of scissors. The marker pen had pretty much worn off by lunchtime.
I of course knew what was going to happen, and the combination of shame, anger, and bowel twisting anxiety as to what was about to happen when I entered the school is not one i'll forget.
Extravagance ... it’s for charity lol - sorry but that’s just cheapMy parents thought that £2 for one was an extravagance, so I had to go in wearing a ping pong ball, with a section cut out of the side to put it on. It was coloured in with red marker pen.
Not only was it about half the size of the official ones (making it look like I had a cherry tomato stuck to my face), the section cut out of the side was roughly done and it felt like i was like wedging my nose between the blades of a pair of scissors. The marker pen had pretty much worn off by lunchtime.
I of course knew what was going to happen, and the combination of shame, anger, and bowel twisting anxiety as to what was about to happen when I entered the school is not one i'll forget.
Edited by DRFC1879 on Tuesday 23 January 14:47
alorotom said:
Ari said:
(Snip)
"Not necessarily"
Amazingly response ... completely destructive and potentially cruel, but amazing!"Not necessarily"
I'll give you another great example (there were many, most of which I've forgotten).
In the early nineties, seeing that property values were on the floor, I bought a house (I didn't need a house at the time, I was living with someone having left home as soon as I could aged 20). I rented the house out (this was long before Buy To Let became popular). In fact I've always felt that it was the best financial move I ever made - my worst was not buying more, which at the time I'd intended to but other events took over.
I should also point out that my father did lend me the money for a deposit, charging me the interest he would have made from it had it remained in the savings account it came from (about 12% at the time I seem to recall), so that was very helpful - couldn't have done it otherwise.
Anyway, fast forward maybe 10 years (money long since paid back, with interest, to my father), and in fact I'd actually moved into the house years earlier, the relationship with the woman I'd been living with having gone wrong.
So the (identical) house next door sells, and it sells for just over £100,000 more than I'd paid for mine, not a bad return in 10 years!
That's fantastic I thought, that really vindicates what a good move it was to buy the house that I bought, when I bought it.
So anyway, I happened to mention this to dear old dad (and bear in mind he's a very 'financially orientated' man, these things are very important to him). 'Hey dad, the house next to mine just sold for £100,000 more than I paid for mine 10 years ago, that's good isn't it?', or words to that effect.
Wasn't trying to show off, just pleased that the purchase had proven to be such a good one, thought he would be too - yay, Ari did something right. His response:
"So what? You can't spend it".
8Ace said:
Nothing like the above, but i do recall one of the early comic relief events where you could buy red noses. Everyone at school had the official charity red nose, with their lovely soft plastic for ease of putting on and off.
My parents thought that £2 for one was an extravagance, so I had to go in wearing a ping pong ball, with a section cut out of the side to put it on. It was coloured in with red marker pen.
Not only was it about half the size of the official ones (making it look like I had a cherry tomato stuck to my face), the section cut out of the side was roughly done and it felt like i was like wedging my nose between the blades of a pair of scissors. The marker pen had pretty much worn off by lunchtime.
I of course knew what was going to happen, and the combination of shame, anger, and bowel twisting anxiety as to what was about to happen when I entered the school is not one i'll forget.
My parents thought that £2 for one was an extravagance, so I had to go in wearing a ping pong ball, with a section cut out of the side to put it on. It was coloured in with red marker pen.
Not only was it about half the size of the official ones (making it look like I had a cherry tomato stuck to my face), the section cut out of the side was roughly done and it felt like i was like wedging my nose between the blades of a pair of scissors. The marker pen had pretty much worn off by lunchtime.
I of course knew what was going to happen, and the combination of shame, anger, and bowel twisting anxiety as to what was about to happen when I entered the school is not one i'll forget.
That's a corker! 
Jesus Ari.... most in your shoes would be bitter f
kers full of hate after living with a dad like that all their lives!
For what it's worth, I've always had a strained relationship with my old man. Usually fueled by him being pissed all weekend (the time he had me) every weekend when I was younger. I have very vivid memories of him and my ex-stepmother physically fighting whilst completely stfaced too... Luckily I somehow managed to process that without turning into one of those types of people as many seem to...
He seems to have calmed down a bit in the last few years, being 70 and all, but god I've had some rows with him over the years....
kers full of hate after living with a dad like that all their lives!For what it's worth, I've always had a strained relationship with my old man. Usually fueled by him being pissed all weekend (the time he had me) every weekend when I was younger. I have very vivid memories of him and my ex-stepmother physically fighting whilst completely s
tfaced too... Luckily I somehow managed to process that without turning into one of those types of people as many seem to...He seems to have calmed down a bit in the last few years, being 70 and all, but god I've had some rows with him over the years....
Some Notable 'main' presents I got for Christmas over various years as a teen were an electric toothbrush, a hand held vacuum, a toaster and kettle set for my 'bottom draw',
I got some great presents as a child from them but in my teen years they just didn't seem to have a clue.
In my late teens the rug incident made it clear it was time to move out - my bedroom had been redecorated, a new cheap carpet had been put down without underlay, fair enough I said to my parents I can live with it, and one of the first things I bought when I started working full time was a £150 rug to make the room a bit nicer [this was 20 years ago and I still have said rug] 1-2 months later after the rug purchase I get home from work one Sunday evening after a hard day of putting stuff on shelves to find my plush rug adorning my parents living room.. I was confused and livid, I stood there confused to be told that they had treated me to a new rug from the Sunday market, which was now in my room. My expensive rug that id agonised over and purchased with my hard earned money had been usurped and replaced by a cheap market stall rug, I still don't understand what happened that day, what the point of it all was, if I over reacted, if as I thought my mother had taken a fancy to the rug or if they were being kind and considerate. Its just a story that I will never get to the bottom of.
I got some great presents as a child from them but in my teen years they just didn't seem to have a clue.
In my late teens the rug incident made it clear it was time to move out - my bedroom had been redecorated, a new cheap carpet had been put down without underlay, fair enough I said to my parents I can live with it, and one of the first things I bought when I started working full time was a £150 rug to make the room a bit nicer [this was 20 years ago and I still have said rug] 1-2 months later after the rug purchase I get home from work one Sunday evening after a hard day of putting stuff on shelves to find my plush rug adorning my parents living room.. I was confused and livid, I stood there confused to be told that they had treated me to a new rug from the Sunday market, which was now in my room. My expensive rug that id agonised over and purchased with my hard earned money had been usurped and replaced by a cheap market stall rug, I still don't understand what happened that day, what the point of it all was, if I over reacted, if as I thought my mother had taken a fancy to the rug or if they were being kind and considerate. Its just a story that I will never get to the bottom of.
sc0tt said:
HTP99 said:
You lot with your BMX's and your games consoles; as mentioned already, I wasn't allowed a BMX as it wasn't a "proper bike" and for some reason I wasn't allowed a games console either, I'm from the era of Atari 2600's.
I had to literally lie to my parents when I was round Nathans, on his Atari, my parents had odd views on electronics, for years my mum thought a VCR was the devils work until she relented because her students kept on mentioning documentaries that she had missed due to my dad watching something else (she was never a TV person and doesn't own one now).
Strange my dad also thought BMX's weren't proper bikes.I had to literally lie to my parents when I was round Nathans, on his Atari, my parents had odd views on electronics, for years my mum thought a VCR was the devils work until she relented because her students kept on mentioning documentaries that she had missed due to my dad watching something else (she was never a TV person and doesn't own one now).
Sorted me one out though.
Didn't have V brakes though so could never do skids.
(Google shot)
", which we thought was hilariously appropriate if quite cruel and not very PC, Greg wasnt bothered, but even then we questioned the wisdom of letting an irrepressibly enthusiastic and completely fearless 13 year old with Downs out on a bike with no brakes, he had some massive crashes and would emerge grinning but covered in blood and dust, whacked a few cars and damaged them. He was a lovely lad Greg but very physical and thought nothing of kicking or punching you and don't distract him when stood next to him at a urinal at the youth club, he pissed with the force of a fire hose and would turn, full flow to talk to you, he doused one lads jeans, soaked his right leg 
TroubledSoul said:
Jesus Ari.... most in your shoes would be bitter fkers full of hate after living with a dad like that all their lives!
For what it's worth, I've always had a strained relationship with my old man. Usually fueled by him being pissed all weekend (the time he had me) every weekend when I was younger. I have very vivid memories of him and my ex-stepmother physically fighting whilst completely stfaced too... Luckily I somehow managed to process that without turning into one of those types of people as many seem to...
He seems to have calmed down a bit in the last few years, being 70 and all, but god I've had some rows with him over the years....
You learn to deal with it - mostly by removing yourself from it as much as possible. I don't actually think it's even wantonly malicious, he's just one of those people that is stuck on 'transmit' (he'll talk for half an hour about some minutia of his life, or what the neighbours have been up to and then shut down when the conversation is no longer about him. I've actually stopped speaking halfway through a sentence before, just to see the reaction - nothing). kers full of hate after living with a dad like that all their lives!For what it's worth, I've always had a strained relationship with my old man. Usually fueled by him being pissed all weekend (the time he had me) every weekend when I was younger. I have very vivid memories of him and my ex-stepmother physically fighting whilst completely s
tfaced too... Luckily I somehow managed to process that without turning into one of those types of people as many seem to...He seems to have calmed down a bit in the last few years, being 70 and all, but god I've had some rows with him over the years....
He's also one of those people that makes himself feel better by looking down on everyone else. Whatever he has is better than the one you have - unless yours is obviously better, in which case yours was a total waste of money and you'd have been better off with one like his.
Hence the negativity he throws out.
It's my mother I feel most sorry for, she's stuck with it! And most sadly, she's come to regard his behaviour as vaguely normal, to the point where she sometimes joins in herself without realising it.
Perfect example, that's stuck with me for its beautifully simplistic double pronged put-down.
When I moved into my house I had been living in a rented fully furnished flat and I didn't have much money, so it was a real case of make do and mend with various old borrowed bits and pieces. At the time I was earning a salary but also got a bonus at the end of the year dependant on how the company had done.
Anyway, about November time, having saved up, I was very excited about having been able to afford a new washing machine - only a cheap one. I happened to mention this to my mother in passing who immediately retorted:
Oh, spending your bonus before you've got it are you?
Neat job of combining 'You can't possibly afford it' (must be spending your bonus to buy it) with 'you're useless with money' (you're buying it before you even have the money to) into a single economical sentence I thought!
Deep breaths, count to ten...
I would have been around 14 years old, Mum and Dad had been separated since I was only fairly young, which come Christmas/Birthday time as a child, I thought was not all that bad as basically I got two lots of presents! Except my Dad was a little hit and miss at his choices....
Anyway, Christmas morning comes around I rush downstairs and find brand new Megadrive (had just been released iirc) from my Mum's side along with the usual bits and pieces, I was made up! Afternoon come around and I go to my Dads, loads more presents, happy days!.... Now I had just started helping my Dad out (he ran his own building company) on school holidays, evenings, weekends etc to earn some extra pocket money. Dad obviously saw this as an excellent topic for presents, upon opening my presents from him, at 14 years old, I recieved a pair of work boots, work jacket and waterproofs... I can't really recall exactly my reaction but I do seem to recall it not being quite the enthusiasm I had on the morning.
That said I still work as builder some 26 years later, so maybe it wasn't such a bad present after all!
Anyway, Christmas morning comes around I rush downstairs and find brand new Megadrive (had just been released iirc) from my Mum's side along with the usual bits and pieces, I was made up! Afternoon come around and I go to my Dads, loads more presents, happy days!.... Now I had just started helping my Dad out (he ran his own building company) on school holidays, evenings, weekends etc to earn some extra pocket money. Dad obviously saw this as an excellent topic for presents, upon opening my presents from him, at 14 years old, I recieved a pair of work boots, work jacket and waterproofs... I can't really recall exactly my reaction but I do seem to recall it not being quite the enthusiasm I had on the morning.
That said I still work as builder some 26 years later, so maybe it wasn't such a bad present after all!
Similalry this seems a thread for me.... have been having a good chuckle.....
... first off I have the mixed blessing that is being born around Christmas....being perennially cursed with "this is for Christmas and Birthday.....
c'79 all I wanted was a Raleigh Chopper..... and come Christmas day, unable to sleep with the excitement but adhering to the rules of "not awake before 7" a sprinted downstairs - disappointment was crushing.....but then... spied behind the sofa sadistically wrapped in miles of sticky tape and random sheets of wrapping - there it was!!! Cue straight outside into the frozen Oxfordshire wastes sporting smurf terry pyjamas (!) and grandad slippers off I went (SOB Dad had the camera handy...)
You may have thought by now I've got this thread wrong... but bear with me..... wheelies were pulled at will, huge sideways slides & skidding done in the village gravel patch, gears were changed by the glorious orange plakky shifter and a I fell off fair more than I'd confess to.....
New year's soon comes and the extended family arrive...I was painfully desperate to show off my prize possession to my less fortunate cousin and in no time manoeuvre him into the shed accompanied by our respective Dads - out for a sneaky gasp... 5 minutes of fun were had and then it all went catastrophically wrong.....
My dear aunt at the kitchen window spies the chopper......
.......(a little license here but you'll get my interpretation of the conversation.....) "Oh, mum-D, you can't buy little -D one of those - I was watching that ffff'ing donkey faced snag tooth meddling do gooding cow on That's Life and she says Choppers are on a par with giving you little boy a V8 chainsaw with a plutonium blade sharpened on a honey badger he'll be paralysed from the neck down by Tuesday......"
A few days pass.... it seemed odd that Mum & Dad weren't keen on me ripping up the neighbourhood with my mates on our bikes.... I go back to school.... and on one fateful day arrange to meet my mates after school on the playing field... so on getting home dump my school uniform and straight to the shed.... some indescribeable offspring of unmarried parents had swiped my bike.. I sprint in floods of tears back into the house to be greeted by a very smug look by mum & dad "I moved it into the garage..".....
A little suspicious but reassured I grab the keys dash out and throw open the door to be greeted by .....
A shiny red grifter......
I tried... I really did... but it just wouldn't come my chopper was no more "it's safer" had no effect - cue the first time I'd ever sworn at my parents and an instant lightning reflexed full weight cuff round the head from Dad.. tears flowed and I fled to my room...
I was distraught but resigned to fate and hating every moment eventually mounted the hundredweight of scaffolding and proceeded to hate..... in days the foam seat was wrecked, the twist gears broke and the back wheel buckled....and the old man, bearing full responsibility dutifully popped it in the cortina estate and had it fixed - every time...... hated it so much treatment was savage....
At 13 I'd hit a mere 6'4" and behind the self same sofa lay a Dawes Galaxy....my meagre savings in the care of Dad were gone and it was for "christmas and birthday".....
Childhood scarring....... I'm unable to this day to see Ms Rantzen on the TV without developing tourettes.....'unt...(sorry Esther)
...and out of spite a few years ago puchased the mortal remains of a chopper... now mostly restored and sat in my conservatory gathering dust just needing the orange toggle and some decals......the saga rounds out with the Galaxy.... after retirement to the garage wall for a couple of decades... was fully restored to pristine original and serves as my commuter transport to this day.......
... first off I have the mixed blessing that is being born around Christmas....being perennially cursed with "this is for Christmas and Birthday.....
c'79 all I wanted was a Raleigh Chopper..... and come Christmas day, unable to sleep with the excitement but adhering to the rules of "not awake before 7" a sprinted downstairs - disappointment was crushing.....but then... spied behind the sofa sadistically wrapped in miles of sticky tape and random sheets of wrapping - there it was!!! Cue straight outside into the frozen Oxfordshire wastes sporting smurf terry pyjamas (!) and grandad slippers off I went (SOB Dad had the camera handy...)
You may have thought by now I've got this thread wrong... but bear with me..... wheelies were pulled at will, huge sideways slides & skidding done in the village gravel patch, gears were changed by the glorious orange plakky shifter and a I fell off fair more than I'd confess to.....
New year's soon comes and the extended family arrive...I was painfully desperate to show off my prize possession to my less fortunate cousin and in no time manoeuvre him into the shed accompanied by our respective Dads - out for a sneaky gasp... 5 minutes of fun were had and then it all went catastrophically wrong.....
My dear aunt at the kitchen window spies the chopper......
.......(a little license here but you'll get my interpretation of the conversation.....) "Oh, mum-D, you can't buy little -D one of those - I was watching that ffff'ing donkey faced snag tooth meddling do gooding cow on That's Life and she says Choppers are on a par with giving you little boy a V8 chainsaw with a plutonium blade sharpened on a honey badger he'll be paralysed from the neck down by Tuesday......"
A few days pass.... it seemed odd that Mum & Dad weren't keen on me ripping up the neighbourhood with my mates on our bikes.... I go back to school.... and on one fateful day arrange to meet my mates after school on the playing field... so on getting home dump my school uniform and straight to the shed.... some indescribeable offspring of unmarried parents had swiped my bike.. I sprint in floods of tears back into the house to be greeted by a very smug look by mum & dad "I moved it into the garage..".....
A little suspicious but reassured I grab the keys dash out and throw open the door to be greeted by .....
A shiny red grifter......
I tried... I really did... but it just wouldn't come my chopper was no more "it's safer" had no effect - cue the first time I'd ever sworn at my parents and an instant lightning reflexed full weight cuff round the head from Dad.. tears flowed and I fled to my room...
I was distraught but resigned to fate and hating every moment eventually mounted the hundredweight of scaffolding and proceeded to hate..... in days the foam seat was wrecked, the twist gears broke and the back wheel buckled....and the old man, bearing full responsibility dutifully popped it in the cortina estate and had it fixed - every time...... hated it so much treatment was savage....
At 13 I'd hit a mere 6'4" and behind the self same sofa lay a Dawes Galaxy....my meagre savings in the care of Dad were gone and it was for "christmas and birthday".....
Childhood scarring....... I'm unable to this day to see Ms Rantzen on the TV without developing tourettes.....'unt...(sorry Esther)
...and out of spite a few years ago puchased the mortal remains of a chopper... now mostly restored and sat in my conservatory gathering dust just needing the orange toggle and some decals......the saga rounds out with the Galaxy.... after retirement to the garage wall for a couple of decades... was fully restored to pristine original and serves as my commuter transport to this day.......
1979 and 12 yrs old. My mum was a single parent of two ...father unknown to everyone but her and him ( still same to this day). Christmas was looming and it was suggested I might get a new bike. The day arrived and I was presented with a woman’s shopping bike from halfords complete with front and rear baskets. I think it was a Halfords Nimbus. Strangely though I don’t remember the piss being ripped out of me too much as they were probably laughing at my homemade clothes and lob sided haircuts that she gave me.
austinsmirk said:
My parents, well I think my father really, got my 7 year old sister a full oak dining room table, sliding leaves, fluted legs, the works. Would seat about 8/10 people.
For her birthday.
She's 7 years old.
So she could do her homework at it.
For her birthday.
She's 7 years old.
So she could do her homework at it.
That’s absolutely brutal. Not quite as brutal as Ari’s Dad but it’s up there.
I always had some pretty good presents from my folks, I always felt very lucky.
However, one thing I still cannot to this day forgive was my mother giving my Tomy remote controlled car to Tom and George, the badly behaved children from across the road.
I truly loved that car, it was a little buggy thing, bright red with big knobbly tyres and a whip aerial. The controller was red and had a big yellow steering wheel.
Apparently Tom and George should’ve had it because thier parents were getting divorced. I can’t have been any older than 5 or 6 and even now at 28 I still seethe at the thought of those two having my prized red car. They wouldn’t have looked after it.
I thought I was the only one who wanted a bmx but got a grifter. Apparently not.
Another time, it was just when computers were coming out. My grandparents gave me a massive present which I thought was a computer. Inside the box was .... another box. Inside that box was ... another box. And so on. Till eventually I got to the present..,.
A calculator!
My dad wanted a sledge when he was a kid. Opened the box and found some wood, so he thought it was a self assembly sledge. Turned out to be a book case!
Another time, it was just when computers were coming out. My grandparents gave me a massive present which I thought was a computer. Inside the box was .... another box. Inside that box was ... another box. And so on. Till eventually I got to the present..,.
A calculator!
My dad wanted a sledge when he was a kid. Opened the box and found some wood, so he thought it was a self assembly sledge. Turned out to be a book case!
This thread has been great. I have no idea how some of you have not turned into psychopaths.
I haven't got any specific horror stories personally, my parents have always been very good like that, even if my dad was always a master at persuading me to ask Santa for things that he wanted. Got an Amiga 500 one year (I don't remember asking for it, I may have done, but suspect he had a lot to do with it), and then the next 2-3 years xmas presents were spent on getting bits for it...
"Oh you'll be really wanting to ask Santa for a Hard Disc Drive son, that'll make your games load faster..." (It was massive, 52Mb as I recall)
"Why not ask Santa for a proper monitor son? Your games will look a lot better on that"
etc. etc.
As time wore on and my computer became outdated, I remember that my brother was then given an Amiga 1200.
I can't grumble, he had no hope of being allowed to spend his money on that sort of stuff otherwise, and they were bloody good presents. Although I think I remember always being a bit disappointed that for some reason santa never brought me a Mega Drive. I now know that's because Santa didn't want a Mega Drive himself...
We also still have all of the above computing stuff sat in the loft and will no doubt get them out to play with them one day
I do distinctly remember the terrible trainers as a child. I think I once got a set of LA Gear with the lights in that were pretty cool, but other than that I only remember having dreadful ones. I vow that in the unlikely event I ever have kids they will be able to have whatever clothes they want/need. I'll be on first name terms with the checkout staff at JD's if necessary, but no way will a child of mine ever go to school in Hi Tecs.
I haven't got any specific horror stories personally, my parents have always been very good like that, even if my dad was always a master at persuading me to ask Santa for things that he wanted. Got an Amiga 500 one year (I don't remember asking for it, I may have done, but suspect he had a lot to do with it), and then the next 2-3 years xmas presents were spent on getting bits for it...
"Oh you'll be really wanting to ask Santa for a Hard Disc Drive son, that'll make your games load faster..." (It was massive, 52Mb as I recall)
"Why not ask Santa for a proper monitor son? Your games will look a lot better on that"
etc. etc.
As time wore on and my computer became outdated, I remember that my brother was then given an Amiga 1200.
I can't grumble, he had no hope of being allowed to spend his money on that sort of stuff otherwise, and they were bloody good presents. Although I think I remember always being a bit disappointed that for some reason santa never brought me a Mega Drive. I now know that's because Santa didn't want a Mega Drive himself...
We also still have all of the above computing stuff sat in the loft and will no doubt get them out to play with them one day
I do distinctly remember the terrible trainers as a child. I think I once got a set of LA Gear with the lights in that were pretty cool, but other than that I only remember having dreadful ones. I vow that in the unlikely event I ever have kids they will be able to have whatever clothes they want/need. I'll be on first name terms with the checkout staff at JD's if necessary, but no way will a child of mine ever go to school in Hi Tecs.
LordJammy said:
That’s absolutely brutal. Not quite as brutal as Ari’s Dad but it’s up there.
I always had some pretty good presents from my folks, I always felt very lucky.
However, one thing I still cannot to this day forgive was my mother giving my Tomy remote controlled car to Tom and George, the badly behaved children from across the road.
I truly loved that car, it was a little buggy thing, bright red with big knobbly tyres and a whip aerial. The controller was red and had a big yellow steering wheel.
Apparently Tom and George should’ve had it because thier parents were getting divorced. I can’t have been any older than 5 or 6 and even now at 28 I still seethe at the thought of those two having my prized red car. They wouldn’t have looked after it.
My parents gave my prised sit in electric race car (charge battery for about 4 hrs and get 10 mins of joy) to their son - whom was a horrible kid whom always cried/was a biter when younger.
I was distraught - I really loved that car ...
Anyhoo - couple of years later - my parents get their comeuppance- they put in planning permission for an extension, guess whom objected !!
FredAstaire said:
...wildest dreams were one of those little robots that could carry a drink to you from the kitchen, or a toy i only vaguely remember know which was some articulated tank-tracked crawler thing along the lines of a big trak. More realistic hope was a transformer.
Tomy Omnibot by any chance? http://www.theoldrobots.com/book46/OmnibotFamily2a...
I remember wanting one when they came out - around 1986 I think? They weren't cheap and I never got one.
I never got a Big Trak either despite asking year after year. When I was in my teens I bought one for a £10 from a friend to find out they were actually more than a little bit rubbish. I also asked for a Scalextric and received a secondhand Aurora AFX set which worked for at least 10 minutes.
The morning of my 18th birthday, while not expecting much, I received nothing. A card from my mum and brother and a card from my gran with a cartoon cut out of the paper that was vaguely related to birthdays. That was it.
This is the parent that 6 years earlier took my younger brother and his friends to a theme park – on my birthday – and didn't ask me.
I must of been around 12 and my brother 15.
In the days leading up to Christmas i had enjoyed pointing out that the largest gift under the tree was for me! A beast of a box, some 80cms high and perhaps 60 wide - oof!! This was seriously exciting stuff.
My brothers present was a more conservative flat yet wide affair.
When the big day arrived I was literally hopping around in my PJs - what would it be??? A huge Hot Wheels track? The biggest Lego set known to man?... the mind boggled as I imagined playing with the unknown gift for hours.
We unwrap gifts one at a time, with everyone watching, usually saving the big ones till last.
My moment came and as I peeled back the paper a plain cardboard box was revealed stuffed with polystyrene. I plunged my hands in to find an object of some heft and quality. Using all my strength I lifted aloft....
....a globe.
A spherical map of planet earth.
Not being a spoilt kid I bit my lip and said my rather muted thank yous. I was however, crushed inside.
My brother was up next and my dads eyes twinkled as he pulled the paper off and revealed A F**KING TAMIYA GRASSHOPPER!! What the s**t!!
I went upstairs and lay facefirst on my bed and stared into the abyss of disappointment.
This story comes out every now and again at family gatherings- i’m 38!
In the days leading up to Christmas i had enjoyed pointing out that the largest gift under the tree was for me! A beast of a box, some 80cms high and perhaps 60 wide - oof!! This was seriously exciting stuff.
My brothers present was a more conservative flat yet wide affair.
When the big day arrived I was literally hopping around in my PJs - what would it be??? A huge Hot Wheels track? The biggest Lego set known to man?... the mind boggled as I imagined playing with the unknown gift for hours.
We unwrap gifts one at a time, with everyone watching, usually saving the big ones till last.
My moment came and as I peeled back the paper a plain cardboard box was revealed stuffed with polystyrene. I plunged my hands in to find an object of some heft and quality. Using all my strength I lifted aloft....
....a globe.
A spherical map of planet earth.
Not being a spoilt kid I bit my lip and said my rather muted thank yous. I was however, crushed inside.
My brother was up next and my dads eyes twinkled as he pulled the paper off and revealed A F**KING TAMIYA GRASSHOPPER!! What the s**t!!
I went upstairs and lay facefirst on my bed and stared into the abyss of disappointment.
This story comes out every now and again at family gatherings- i’m 38!
Edited by DoubleSix on Wednesday 24th January 08:43
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff