gift/burden

[flea]

I got home last night, on foot, at 10:30, to find a present on our doorstop. It is a little ghost-themed tin pail, with rice krispie treats, glow-in-the-dark bracelets, and little foam pellets that expand into monsters when you add water. It also had a little note, in rhyme, saying that I should copy the note (ghost-shaped) and make gifts for two other families, and post the ghost on my door to show I had already been gifted.

So basically, it's a Halloween gift basket chain letter. My choices are: ignore the instructions to pass it on, and feel guilty; run out to Kroger after work tonight and buy stuff for two more baskets and make them and put them on some other unsuspecting person's door. I'm not sure which I am going to do. This is one of those little gestures that seems like a nice thing, but honestly, I'd rather not have received it.

Comments

[vwbug.livejournal.com]

Wow. Forced pay-it-forward. That's a little presumptuous.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Feel guilty! But not particularly guilty. It's not just a chain letter, it's a Ponzi scheme. And it's especially obnoxious and intrusive for a neighbor to presume you have the (a) interest (b) finances and (c) time to participate in something you didn't sign up for. And it sounds like the kind of thing housewives can afford to do -- in a way that can come across as criticizing families who don't have a stay-at-home parent.

It's all a republican plot!! Resist! Reeeeesiiiiiist!

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

Or, you know, leave the basket and note on someone else's doorstep, and let them deal with it.

Or just give the basket sans note to someone else. No guilt!

[serrana.livejournal.com]

*points* I like this approach.

Although if I found a random bucket o'crap on my doorstep, left there anonymously, I would probably throw it out. But then I'm paranoid. I wouldn't even open the door and talk to those nice ladies with the tracts this morning.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

That was a really nice gesture, up until the "you MUST pass it on" note.