Not every gift is given with good intentions.

Have you ever received a gift that was a thinly veiled insult? Buying someone a subscription to Jenny Craig sends a cruel message about their weight loud and clear. Getting your partner a pack of chewing gum or a 20-oz bottle of Diet Dr Pepper for their birthday clearly communicates that you didn’t care enough about them to put in the time and effort to choose a meaningful gift. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on someone, but if it’s clear your gift took absolutely no thought or effort, you might’ve been better off refraining from giving them a gift at all.

It’s one thing to be a genuinely unskilled gift-giver who cannot for the life of you figure out what to get for your friends and family, but if you buy something that’s just plain cruel to the recipient, you can’t expect them to act all happy that you went to the effort of buying them a gift. There’s a reason many parents don’t want their kids to open their birthday presents at their birthday party in front of all their friends. If they react negatively, they don’t want everyone to be a witness to that.