Feeling Left Out
When I was about 12, maybe 13, I was at my stepfather’s parents house. My step-father was a complete jerk to me and apparently had learned his ways from his parents. Despite being in this family for ten years they never seemed to think of me as family, more like just my mother’s daughter.
Well these people were never hurting for money, years of being greedy lead to a nice retirement. Funny enough only my stepfather and his parents thought this way, everyone else loved me and I them.
So Christmas rolls around and they’re handing out presents. Me and my two cousins are sitting there and the one to my right gets a present then the one to my left gets a present then the one to my right, back and forth but missing me in the middle. The whole family is watching as they get a huge pile each and in the end I got one box.
Now the fun part, there’s two prepaid gift cards on the tree. The grandpa jokes around for a few minutes about it and then hands one to each of my cousins on either side. There’s an audible gasp from the rest of the family as they realize that I got squat for Christmas and he had just openly joked about it.
In the end I got a $5 sweater (they left the markdown tag on it) that was a size 2XL…I am nowhere near that size, I could have fit another person in there with me.
And somehow he was confused as to why I just walked out without saying a word, he was offended I didn’t say thanks for a crappy sweater when the other two cousins got about $200 each worth of presents. I was always taught to be grateful for every present because the giver didn’t have to do anything, young me wished he hadn’t. Story credit: Reddit/AndSoWeSayHello