“You Clearly Wanted Them”: Family Gets Petty Revenge On Grumpy FIL By Gifting Him 17 Used Mugs
Interview With Author
Adults with older parents have probably heard every possible “in my day-ism” there is to know. Their generation was better in every single way. More resourceful, more thrifty, more resilient. Everything was better back in the day, right?
The grandpa in this story had something to say about the mugs the family was about to give away. Redditor PickledCarrot19 told the r/PettyRevenge subreddit about how she made her FIL put his money where his mouth is. If the mugs are perfectly good, why don’t you take them, thought the Redditor with her husband?
Luckily, Bored Panda was able to have a chat with the author of this post. PickledCarrot19 agreed to tell us a little bit more about what drove her to share the story with the Internet. Read the entire story and our short conversation with her below!
Mugs can be a pretty practical gift, but there can be too much of a good thing even with them
Image credits: Ewen Roberts / Flickr (not the actual photo)
This family wanted to get rid of their extra mugs, but their FIL protested that it’s too wasteful
Image credits: Garakta-Studio / envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: PickledCarrot19
The OP saw an opportunity to inspire other people with the story and took it
When we chatted with PickledCarrot19, she said she rarely posts stories like these. “I’ve been a long-time lurker on Reddit. Reading the stories people post kind of makes me feel better about my life and is a great reminder of how lucky I am. I never thought I would have anything worthy of posting on a larger sub.”
However, that changed over time as her FIL started saying and doing more things that got on her and her husband’s nerves. “My father-in-law has recently been behaving more outrageously,” the user told Bored Panda.
“This was the first interaction I had with him where I could actually tease him a little bit after all the grief I’ve received from him. I thought it would inspire people in similar situations to take control of these silly little situations.”
Other family members were silent partners in this genius plan
We asked the Redditor whether other family members were in on the gift for the FIL. “My husband filled his siblings in on what we were doing so it only came as a surprise to my FIL. The whole family knows how he is and agreed it would be funny.”
However, one person had some doubts about the plan. “One of his siblings said that our Christmas celebration was not the time or place,” the Redditor admits. “Despite that warning, we went ahead with the plan.”
“After my FIL’s excuses and my husband’s response, the conversation shifted and it wasn’t discussed further,” the author continues. “So overall it didn’t cause any drama amongst the rest of the family.” At least so far.
The OP doesn’t take mean comments and assumptions to heart, it’s the Internet, after all
PickledCarrot19’s post on r/PettyRevenge racked up over 3k upvotes in a day. Naturally, a lot of people felt obliged to offer their opinion. The feedback PickledCarrot19 got from the commenters under the post wasn’t all nice. Some people were quick to jump to assumptions about family dynamics, others really put the “petty” in r/PettyRevenge.
Fortunately, the Redditor says it doesn’t bother her. “Overall, the response to my post was pretty positive,” she says. Based on what people commented, she believes people just got a good chuckle out of the story.
“There’s always going to be negative people in the world. Their reaction doesn’t bother me because I know that A) they’re already miserable people to begin with or B) their negativity comes from a place of misunderstanding.”
The author says you have to remember that it’s the nature of the Internet. “I can’t really blame them for not understanding the family dynamics of an internet stranger. I chose to put this story out into the world and I have to accept all sorts of feedback from it,” the author tells Bored Panda.
The comments ranged from praise for the OP and some witty suggestions, to concern for the FIL’s health
Other commenters contributed less to the discussion but still wanted to be heard
Binning perfectly good mugs is wasteful. Donating mugs to a charity shop for resale is not. In fact, making your under-used items available to others reduces the need for new goods, so less is being made - less raw materials and less energy are being used. You're saving the plannet when you donate your unused/unwanted items, not being wasteful.
I totally get it, since we also have far too many mugs and often get more as gifts 😅
The $ value of a mug is pretty low. It's not as if the couple is throwing away large quantities of money. And I reiterate, they planned to donate the mugs.
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Mugs build up in your cabinets so much quicker than you think! And you always find a new one you fall in love with and think "surely we can find one more spot for this." And it continues.
Binning perfectly good mugs is wasteful. Donating mugs to a charity shop for resale is not. In fact, making your under-used items available to others reduces the need for new goods, so less is being made - less raw materials and less energy are being used. You're saving the plannet when you donate your unused/unwanted items, not being wasteful.
I totally get it, since we also have far too many mugs and often get more as gifts 😅
The $ value of a mug is pretty low. It's not as if the couple is throwing away large quantities of money. And I reiterate, they planned to donate the mugs.
Load More Replies... Mugs build up in your cabinets so much quicker than you think! And you always find a new one you fall in love with and think "surely we can find one more spot for this." And it continues.
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