Is Gifter’s Remorse an Actual Thing?
There’s no doubt about the fact that the gift-giving ritual hasn’t been immune to the sort of contamination which has it turning into a really expensive exercise, so too an exercise which sort of defeats its original purpose. When you pick out a gift for someone it’s meant to be one of the best ways through which to show them how much you love and appreciate them, so it shouldn’t turn into anything resembling some or other competition.
Things have gone a bit too far as well with the modern day gift-giving rituals, or at least according to me. There is a growing phenomenon called gifter’s remorse, where the gift-giver is overcome with feelings of regret over firstly buying someone they love a gift, and secondly, for actually following through on gifting them their present.
Now, there are three types of scenarios through which gifter’s remorse manifests, namely right after the gift giver spends too much; when the gift giver has spent a bit too much time thinking about the gift prior to settling on one; and when the gift turns out to be something of a serious life-changer which in a sense could very well have benefitted the gifter had they kept it to for themselves.
Spending too much
I can understand the psychology behind the spending of too much money on a gift resulting in gifter’s remorse. After all, you’re taking money out of your own pocket to spend on someone else and although this is ordinarily in line with what people who care about each other do, it does go against the psychology of economics. The worst is when you feel like your gift isn’t appreciated…
Thinking too much about the meaning of the gift
On the other side of the coin which has spending too much inducing gifter’s remorse is indeed the sort of gifter’s remorse that comes from putting too much thought into picking out a gift. Over-thinking can make for a precursor to an unshakeable feeling that no matter what gift you ultimately settle on, it just doesn’t seem thoughtful or useful enough.
Life-altering gifts
Granted it would have to be a seriously quirky gift for it to turn out to be one that is seriously life-altering, but these things definitely happen. The trick to avoiding gift-giver’s remorse of this kind is to perhaps make sure you’re in on the possible success-explosion of those gifts and I realise I should perhaps explain this through a real-life example.
Some people buy lottery tickets for people as gifts, which is extremely quirky I must say, but hey, each to their own. What would happen though if upon checking the subsequent Euro lottery results of the draw you find that the person for whom you bought the ticket is now a mega millionaire? In the case of a mother having bought the ticket for their child, there’d perhaps be no such gift-giver’s remorse, but these are the types of quirky gifts which can bring that about very strongly.
So yes, gifter’s remorse is in actual fact a real thing, so watch out for it!
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