Help me understand women...

[Ohemgee]

I don't see how its greedy to accept a gift from retired parents.

[Norelco]

She's just being irrational...this morning she said stuff like...

"I don't want a new stove." Never asked why...should have.

"Can't we just have them write us a check instead?" Ingrate...baffled...can you really be this rude?

Both things want to make me shake the shit out of her.

[Darus Grey]

I don't see how its greedy to accept a gift from retired parents.

Greedy is over-stating it. It is self-centered though.

You're allowing them to *waste*(as in, throw away, for no practical reason) money on something you don't need. A gift is a gift, but receiving a gift bears certain responsibilities. You should be able to tell the gift-giver that you appreciate the thought but the gift is wasted on you, letting them either re-consider the options or choose to not give it.

Otherwise you're replacing a fully functional stove, and they're down $X. I cannot fathom why it would be rude to value the money of the gift-giver. I wouldn't want my parents buying me useless items and I'm sure they appreciate me telling them not to waste their own money(which I've done plenty of times).

Edit: To Norelco, yeah that's just kinda messed up =/. If she doesn't want the stove then just leave it at that. Your parents are not obligated to give you anything at all if you reject the first option.

[Ryko]

I'd tell them to save their money, it's superfluous to spend that sort of money on something no one even needs.

[Ohemgee]

To each his own. If it was my case, my parents would strongly advise selling the old stove for pocket money and they'd buy the stove (from sears so I can put it on the sears coverage plan!) anyway.

It isn't throwing money at me, it's more like a boost to a new life. 10 years down the road, I'd appreciate the new stove over the new one.

[Norelco]

Greedy is over-stating it. It is self-centered though.

You're allowing them to *waste*(as in, throw away, for no practical reason) money on something you don't need. A gift is a gift, but receiving a gift bears certain responsibilities. You should be able to tell the gift-giver that you appreciate the thought but the gift is wasted on you, letting them either re-consider the options or choose to not give it.

Otherwise you're replacing a fully functional stove, and they're down $X. I cannot fathom why it would be rude to value the money of the gift-giver. I wouldn't want my parents buying me useless items and I'm sure they appreciate me telling them not to waste their own money(which I've done plenty of times).

My mom told me last night that my dad gets a "high" from giving gifts to people he loves. I guess I could be misguided, but I'm happy for him if he gets a good feeling out of buying something for us.

I mean sure, it's probably a perfectly functioning stove, but I don't know if the stove will last me another 5 minutes or another 5 years. He told me his reasoning is it's one less thing to worry about down the road. We might have kids in the next two or three years...so to have to spend $1000 on a stove while in the middle of that is just one a several hassles this could help us to avoid.

I'm just disappointed with how my wife is acting.

[Colenzo]

Step1. Punch her in the face.
Step 2. Chain her up in the kitchen.
Step 3. ???
Step 4. Profit

[octopus]

Just break the current stove and be done with it :D

[Norelco]

I think the worst thing about all of this is the position she's putting me in with my parents. I don't feel I should have to play the middle-man in this whole scenario.

[Ohemgee]

My mom told me last night that my dad gets a "high" from giving gifts to people he loves. I guess I could be misguided, but I'm happy for him if he gets a good feeling out of buying something for us.

I mean sure, it's probably a perfectly functioning stove, but I don't know if the stove will last me another 5 minutes or another 5 years. He told me his reasoning is it's one less thing to worry about down the road. We might have kids in the next two or three years...so to have to spend $1000 on a stove while in the middle of that is just one a several hassles this could help us to avoid.

I'm just disappointed with how my wife is acting.

Accept the stove anyway, she'll get over it.

[Day]

Really just tell her to get over it. She will eventually. Take the stove, it's not worth potentially upsetting your parents over. If you turn it down you KNOW that stove will break in less than a week.

[Norelco]

Accept the stove anyway, she'll get over it.

I think this is what I am going to do. She'll have to suck it up.

[Norelco]

Really just tell her to get over it. She will eventually. Take the stove, it's not worth potentially upsetting your parents over. If you turn it down you KNOW that stove will break in less than a week.

lol you're probably right. Our dishwasher just broke a month after we moved into the house, so we just ordered a new one. Never can tell when stuff will break.

[zoobernut]

The difference between a stove and any other appliance is that (even electric stoves) when they break usually do not cost that much to fix ($100-$150 for parts and labor)

Now I agree with what Day and others have said. Take the stove be happy tell your wife to suck it up and be polite to your parents and thank them, sell the old stove on craigslist and use that money for the living room.

The other option is more covert and has more potential for lulz for us on the forums, late at night after everyone has gone to bed take a screwdriver to the stove and "break" it so your wife will be happy to get the new stove from your parents.

[Darus Grey]

Well I agree now to take the stove based on what you've said.

But a stove really is a lot different from other appliances. They have no major moving parts. There's nothing to break. In the event they do stop working you NEVER have to replace them. A stove is nothing more than a flame and lighting mechanism that's a joke to repair. They should last your entire life, and several others.

Newer one's have tons of electronics that will break a lot sooner than the mechanical parts. They're even less complex than a toilet, and almost no one ever replaces those unless they physically break the fucker in half.

[Ohemgee]

Lets hope she knows how to bake

[Andri]

My mom told me last night that my dad gets a "high" from giving gifts to people he loves. I guess I could be misguided, but I'm happy for him if he gets a good feeling out of buying something for us.

I mean sure, it's probably a perfectly functioning stove, but I don't know if the stove will last me another 5 minutes or another 5 years. He told me his reasoning is it's one less thing to worry about down the road. We might have kids in the next two or three years...so to have to spend $1000 on a stove while in the middle of that is just one a several hassles this could help us to avoid.

I'm just disappointed with how my wife is acting.

Norelco... this is EXACTLY my parents. They live a comfortable, retired life. When they come to my house, they look for things to 'fix.' Recently they were visiting and one day i had to work, leaving them alone in the house, they went out to the store while i was at work and restocked nearly everything. Like an extra bag of cat litter, extra huge bag of cat food, More unopened paper towels were next to my opened paper towels, new laundry detergent was next to my half-gone bottle.

I shake my head. I can buy cat litter and laundry detergent, but I know they just wanted to do something nice, to help out. I know it made them feel good to 'help me.'

[Shuemue]

To be fair, it's not just your wife being unreasonable. Your dad should know better than to offer a 'this or nothing' gift, rather than asking what you and your wife would appreciate most.

However, she's being more unreasonable and between them they've put you in a pretty shitty position.

Is there any chance of talking to your dad, telling him that you'd love a new stove, but that you'd like him to hang onto the cash until the current one genuinely needs replacing? That would give him an opportunity to offer to spend on something else?

[Norelco]

To be fair, it's not just your wife being unreasonable. Your dad should know better than to offer a 'this or nothing' gift, rather than asking what you and your wife would appreciate most.

However, she's being more unreasonable and between them they've put you in a pretty shitty position.

Is there any chance of talking to your dad, telling him that you'd love a new stove, but that you'd like him to hang onto the cash until the current one genuinely needs replacing? That would give him an opportunity to offer to spend on something else?

The tricky part for me is wording all of this so there is no strain created between my wife and my parents.

My dad has a habit of, for lack of better phrasing, buying me/us gifts we don't really need. For Christmas, he asked me if I'd rather have a brand new navigation system (about $350) for my car, or the cash equivalent.

I don't do alot of traveling that requires a navigation system, and when I do, I just print something out on mapquest for free. I honestly don't see the need for a navigation system. And that cash actually helped us with our closing costs on the house.

By the way...I forgot to mention this, but my dad has alterior motives for buying stuff for us. He has an air miles credit card. He travels frequently and is constantly griping about how it costs him more of his air miles to get free flights, so any purchases he makes on his card go towards his air miles. He'd basically like to get points for getting us a gift instead of writing us a check and not getting the points.

Don't know how that might change things for your guy's opinions.

[Koyuki]

The tricky part for me is wording all of this so there is no strain created between my wife and my parents.

My dad has a habit of, for lack of better phrasing, buying me/us gifts we don't really need. For Christmas, he asked me if I'd rather have a brand new navigation system (about $350) for my car, or the cash equivalent.

I don't do alot of traveling that requires a navigation system, and when I do, I just print something out on mapquest for free. I honestly don't see the need for a navigation system. And that cash actually helped us with our closing costs on the house.

By the way...I forgot to mention this, but my dad has alterior motives for buying stuff for us. He has an air miles credit card. He travels frequently and is constantly griping about how it costs him more of his air miles to get free flights, so any purchases he makes on his card go towards his air miles. He'd basically like to get points for getting us a gift instead of writing us a check and not getting the points.

Don't know how that might change things for your guy's opinions.

Can I borrow your dad for a while? I need some free shit.