My husband surprised me with a pair of (expensive) earrings in December. They weren’t my style at all. I have conservative and traditional tastes, but the earrings were modern and edgy. I hate the color brown and never wear it; the earrings have brown topaz gemstones.
After my initial expressions of gratitude and appreciation, which were genuine, I told my husband that I really didn’t care for the earrings. I knew that he’d spent quite a bit of money on them, and I thought that it would be better to be honest and exchange them for something that I’d enjoy wearing.
The look on his face made me feel about 2 feet tall. He told me that he’d carefully selected the gift and had returned to the store several times before buying them, just to make sure that he was making the right choice. He’d asked a number of female customers for their opinions. Most of all, he paid for the earrings with funds from his personal savings account—not from one of our joint accounts—so that they’d truly be a gift from him.
You can guess what happened. I had a complete “change of heart” and told him that I liked the earrings after all and really, really wanted to keep them. I wear them every couple of weeks or so. I learned that a little white lie can sometimes be a very good thing.
Personally, I’m not hurt if someone doesn’t like a gift. I figure that all people have different tastes—that’s what makes the world interesting—and that someone doesn’t have to like something just because I do. But…
Maybe it’s a male/female issue. In general, women do more shopping, and purchase more gifts, than men do, so they might have more practical feelings about the whole thing.